Monorail

by | Apr 15, 2024 | Poetry

Dark orange seats on a monorail next to a narrow pathway marked by a yellow and black caution tape.

I buy my one-way ticket
and when the doors open
I climb into the car

and sit on the orange bench
with my own window into the city
of a world already built

and under deconstruction
I ride unswerving into the future
the end is forward

the end will assume
a single reality coming
apart at the seams

the cradle of the car tilts
and I watch bricks suspended
in blue straps swing

across a chute of grey slurry
building anew the erasure of time
and something too small for color


Photo by Oran Viriyincy, used and adapted under CC.

About The Author

mm

Mary Buchinger is the author of seven collections of poetry; her most recent books are The Book of Shores (Lily Poetry Review Books, 2024), Navigating the Reach (Salmon Poetry, 2023), and Virology (Lily Poetry Review Books, 2022). Her work has appeared in AGNI, Maine Review, Plume, Salamander, Salt Hill, Seneca Review, and elsewhere. She teaches at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences and serves on the board of the New England Poetry Club.