.
Washington Street under the El, looking toward Egleston Square: photo by Ernst Halberstadt (1910-1987) for U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, February 1973 (National Archives and Records Administration)
talking to strange men on the subway,
doesn't see me when she gets on,
...........at Washington Street
but I hide in a booth at the side
.....and watch her worried, strained face --
..the few years she has got left.
.....Until at South Station
....I lean over and say:
..I've been watching you since you got on.
.......She says in an artificial
..........voice: Oh, for Heaven's sake!
....as if heaven cared.
But I love her in the underground
......and her gray coat and hair
sitting there, one man over from me
......talking together between the wire grates of a cage.
John Wieners (1934-2002): My Mother, from The Ages of Youth in Ace of Pentacles (1964)
doesn't see me when she gets on,
...........at Washington Street
but I hide in a booth at the side
.....and watch her worried, strained face --
..the few years she has got left.
.....Until at South Station
....I lean over and say:
..I've been watching you since you got on.
.......She says in an artificial
..........voice: Oh, for Heaven's sake!
....as if heaven cared.
But I love her in the underground
......and her gray coat and hair
sitting there, one man over from me
......talking together between the wire grates of a cage.
John Wieners (1934-2002): My Mother, from The Ages of Youth in Ace of Pentacles (1964)
Elevated railroad structure and blighted area below Washington Street, looking south from the corner of Bartlett, Boston, Massachusetts: photo by Ernst Halberstadt (1910-1987) for U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, February 1973 (National Archives and Records Administration)
