︎

 

Maureen Kelly




The Handcar



Now, there will be a new theatre

Where there will be more acting, more laughter

More hope and more liking hopefulness

Now, the forklifts will lift more—

The cherry picker, picking up the worker

To reach, there will be laughter

And a ladder that leans to the

Insulation grid, there is a set being

Built of plywood, a roof a harnessed

Worker steps across, a pipe being

Hammered on, a stake with ribbon

Demarcating a foundation, of a new

Structure, beside a false railroad station,

False because it is long gone,

But I can walk across this patio,

Across the bird-scattered lawn

And read a small sign in the setting sun

That reads: on this site there was





Maureen Kelly holds an MFA from New England College.  Her poems have appeared in Ethel and Ascensus: Journal of Humanities. She lives in Yonkers, NY.

Malasaña | Hudson, NY| Cargo Collective | Portland, ME | 2021
Running on Cargo