~ Delta Poetry Review ~

James Fowler

Whistle-Stop

The humdrum freight cars pass jazzed

with zoot-suited names, tight-lipped glyphs,

a taggers’ parade for a captive crowd

down at the crossing. Dead-stopped drivers

shift into Park or kill their pawing engines

after thirty or so links in the long, long chain

of tankers, boxcars, and wood-piled flatbeds

snarling traffic from all directions at this

chief of chokepoints in a rail-founded town.

Just hunker down and take in the show

with its haphazard chorus line aerosoled

in yards and sidings across the mid-South

as bored teens flex their artistic gifts

on any handy surface, the more mobile

the better. It’s a traveling circus, a canvas

of highly colored potentials trumpeted here

with zebra arrest and flashing red alert.

James Fowler has retired from teaching literature at the University of Central Arkansas. He is author of the poetry collection The Pain Trader (Golden Antelope Press, 2020). His poems have recently appeared in such publications as Sangam Literary Magazine, Evening Street Review, Glimpse, and Cave Region Review.