By Jack Joseph Smith
Original Scan
AI Interpretation
Railroad noise, an eight-by-four kitchen window, February 1976 in Bethel Park, nightly tornadoes, and a last sparrow across snow turn inflation into weathered domestic pressure.
The setting is precise enough to feel documentary, yet the poem keeps slipping into elemental disturbance. The lingering canyon and constant trains place the house inside a geography of motion and echo. Calling the tornadoes "just new wind" makes repeated upheaval sound both minimized and inescapable.
'Along The Track Of Inflation / Frames': heard the railroad train all the time; kitchen window eight by four, seventy-five yards from a lingering canyon skirt. February 1976 Bethel Park Pennsylvania — 'there has been a tornado every night / Just new wind / when the last sparrow flew across the snow.'