Matchsticks meadows portrait miniatures
Snuff boxes and parasols
Bygone wisps of fragrant inspiration
Upon the platform they awaited the train’s arrival
And awaited the signal to begin boarding
The travelers the ones who could pick up and leave
Who could go there when here became a bore
They showed their expectancy
Prepared themselves to endure the smoke the cinders
Amid the leather baggage the slanted hand trucks
The carts with their metal wheels
The clothing that concealed the skin

Outside the carriages were pulled by horses
People worked as farmers as factory hands
As domestic servants in great houses
Interiors of polished wood and brass handles
Children languished in the schoolhouse
Site of punishment corporal and mental
Daily occasion of humiliation
Some quit school and went to work
And everywhere were the privileged
And those excluded from privilege
Everybody played their part
Including the strivers the climbers
Who paid a price for their ambitions
But most people scrambled to perform their assigned tasks
And had no energy left over to strive and climb
And sometimes they numbed themselves
To their unpleasant existence
And ingested supplements for their lack of vitality
And if those at the top or those
Who made great efforts to get to the top
Were good then the scramblers were not good
The ones who struggled not strove
Were worth less than the striding colossi

We go to museums to see the fine art
We watch plays and hear readings of poetry
How many had to suffer to allow
The creation of monuments of glorious beauty
Everybody suffers even the few in pampered wealth
And the many suffer more