The South Shore Journal, Vol. 2, 2007, p.29.
Interstate 80/94 in Progress:
Half a Year after August 2005
Like a monstrous bird a construction crane
lies flat upon the ground;
its long and slender neck
cracked,
smashed against the concrete,
where thousands of tons of metal caught it,
mid-gulp,
mid-construction zone.
An industrial strap
meant to support the fatal, giant steel girder
flaps
in the breeze.
Like feathers come loose from a crane,
it is tattered and torn at the bottom,
where it finally gave way and said
ENOUGH
I will bear your weight no longer—
and let go its burden
down
onto the bird,
the delicate bird-machine,
which squawked and screamed a death cry,
blindly tossed its vulnerable mind/heart from the basket-head,
and
dashed him to the ground.
The dead workman’s body was removed immediately.
The crumpled steel girder they removed a month later.
Six months gone now, and the bird lies there still,
the gaping neck wound a raw reminder of the convenience
of the interstate highway.
-Naomi Buck Palagi