On The Tracks Poem by Day Williams

On the Tracks

The New York millionaires have fled to Rome,
The West Coast billionaires take to the air,
The dishwashers and truck drivers stay home,
And the cancer patients have requested hair

From nurses who have children sick at school,
Nurses who work a double-shift to pay
The rent because the ex won't follow rules
And children like to eat, wear clothes, and play

In the abandoned houses by the tracks
Where freight trains whistle in the morning mist,
Visibility at a hundred feet

As the daredevil boys depart the shacks
Where they had taken girls for their first kiss
And stand on slats, as mist turns into sleet.