I remember rippin’ through the Rathole
that yellow tunnel under twenty-two tracks
109th Street’s downtown rumble
with two-way close contact
the roar was muffler reverb
pedestrians could get soaked
a truck once took my sideview
as the exhaust vapors hung like a cloak—
but after seventy-two years of subterranean news
it was Rats In Peace to the Rathole Blues
This is one of four poems chosen for The Poetry Route’s, Voices of Home flight; putting poetry on public transit. It is currently being viewed on two hundred ETS buses for eight weeks, starting Sept. 30th. Now that’s a captured audience!