// THE CITY VS. JOHN HENRY

1. Destiny of a Steel Driving Man
a natural man
driving steel in
the still of un
natural nightdeep
in the metro
below unnatural
dark the steel
hammer sparks
the third rail
well he’ll
die with his hammer
in his hand yes
he’ll

2. …Skyscrapers and Everything
Mr J Hammer Henry
with your black
neck black as rail spikes
muscles like sack of froze
hams Mr J Bama Henry
outlantish off bus
could barely fit frigid hams
and pitch spikes hammer
poking out stowage like
natural man’s poke
or like skyscraper haymakered
to the concrete for deep
machine sleep bus engine
stuttering coal smoke woe
don’t go John Henry natural man
electric traffic light
raise its bloody hand
to say don’t go ‘cross that street

3. Losing Religion
John get on track
you a bled in the wool Christian
ain’t you can’t be seen crossing
this scarlet street

no valley to heaven
lie in quim nor bossom
you rail spike in dry loam
you good for working dying

and where’s your hammer
ain’t safe here for a myth
to travel symbol free mis
understood despite your manhood
so hold it
just like steel
say CLANG


ain’t that natural

4. In Therapy
every spike a nail driven
into America’s hoof gon ride this count
ry down John says to the ocean to drink up
through the black mountains for a view
he sees America’s pinto hide stretched
over its sweatful bones galloping
toward City unnatural as a stable
City says where you think the train was going

John-John go
CLANG CLANG
and nothing stops



OK, so this is another New York poem. May 2007, hanging out with my cousin, Michael, the fine poets Tracy K. Smith, Camille Dungy and some other folks I can’t remember (there were pitchers of sangria involved, I’m sorry); we were going from bar to bar in Manhattan in search of more sangria and we kept doing the Stevie Wonder skit from “Living For The City.” The next morning, I decided it would be interesting to see what would happen if it were John Henry on that bus.