Home » Poems » Gershon Wolf » The Chicago Stockyards

The Chicago Stockyards

The tracks long abandoned now weeds growing between their rails tracks that once brought sheep and cows thousands of workers with lunch pails The stockyards closed 'bout seventy-one technology spelling their doom Buried beneath those acres of grounds stories of blood and guts and passions bloomed A spectacle they were to see Their niche in history sure to be

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Caren Krutsinger

Date: 12/17/2021 8:09:00 AM

I do not know about the passions blooming but I do know "stories of blood and guts and fear of animals" were prevalent in the stockyards.

Bill Baker

Date: 12/8/2021 4:30:00 PM

Nice historic flash back poem, gw Your friend, Bill

Debra L Brown

Date: 12/8/2021 4:11:00 PM

History for sure what will take it's place?

Rico Leffanta
Date: 12/10/2021 10:03:00 AM

You might suggest they open their eyes to opportunity, e.g., many businesses have gone belly-up due to the pandemic and Amazon, but consumers still consume, so trains should be catering to them with "Mall" trains, e.g., Sears big-ticket items to Farmers' markets, swap meet, trains to the towns lining the tracks . . . .

Gershon Wolf
Date: 12/8/2021 6:07:00 PM

Basically, refrigeration on trucks killed this train-centered industry. Chicago was the hub of the nation, as it was centrally located. Now trucks do the job that trains used to do.

Rico Leffanta

Date: 12/8/2021 10:30:00 AM

Enjoyed, but I hope you are a voice for restoring that "nourished" land to agricultural purposes . . . .

Rico Leffanta
Date: 12/10/2021 10:00:00 AM

Why not, indeed! In Honolulu, such land becomes Community Gardens, i.e., divided into plots which condo-dwellers can rent to grow vegetables, flowers, etc. whilst relieving the tax burden . . . .

Gershon Wolf
Date: 12/8/2021 6:08:00 PM

You know, it's a great idea. The land, especially the maze of RR tracks downtown and near downtown, has been lying there unused for decades. Why not plant something?!

Kim Rodrigues

Date: 12/8/2021 7:25:00 AM

Great history!

John Lawless

Date: 12/8/2021 6:27:00 AM

what was that great poetic opening line "Chicago, hog butcher to the world" or something like that....been a while since i read it...

Tom Cunningham

Date: 12/8/2021 1:37:00 AM

What was once a hive of industry now relegated to history. Tom

P.S. Awtry

Date: 12/8/2021 12:20:00 AM

So descriptive. I could see those layers of years. :)

Gershon Wolf
Date: 12/8/2021 6:05:00 PM

Those layers of years were filled with fears and tears as well. The Stockyards were a hellhole for those who worked there in the first couple of decades of the 20th century. :) gw

L Milton Hankins

Date: 12/7/2021 9:06:00 PM

I think the stockyards are a thing of the past everywhere now, gw. I know the one here in Boyd County closed, oh, probably five or six years ago.

Gershon Wolf
Date: 12/8/2021 2:01:00 PM

Gosh, I hope the stockyards are part of history 100% at this point. They were pretty awful places, however impressive they may have been from a distance...