Taking the Rock Island Rocket
Early in the morning you boarded it
and for a ride from Rock Island to Chicago.
tickets bought
for an outing
anticipated all week
First, it lumbered on the main track
through rail yards, warehouses, aging
factories where your fathers worked
as it clicked and clacked its way
out of town. It passed back yards
in East Moline where early morning
residents walked, secrets revealed.
You wanted to tell them there was
so much more
to the life they’d known
you were young
You were on summer break
from college and sharing
the journey with high school
friends on a Saturday off
from summer jobs
vistas of countryside
east of town opened
fields vibrant and green
After three hours a towering
skyline grew before your eager eyes
of Chicago, a city so great that each time
it stirred your imagination and after
you got off the train the Hancock Building
looked just blocks away
the mecca sought
reached into
open skies
You walked through the Loop
and by the El, overhead commuter tracks
past small ethnic restaurants and crowded
sidewalks where a woman with a shaved head
danced with her man and you gasped
o, a wonder of the music played
moment-by-moment
you embraced stories
each neighborhood revealed
You walked from hours to get
to your destination to go up
do the observation deck and
view other skyscrapers and
interstates web their way
through a metropolis as it
rose in the midst of fields and farms
just to the east
the sun shimmered
on an endless lake
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