Poem: Streetcar Ride (A Story in Eight Stanzas of Tanka)

I.

Hop on the Blue Line
The streetcar through the city
still a novelty
powered on electric tracks
go all over the city.


II.

Watch all the faces
as passengers come and go
work and home and back
This streetcar is a godsend
to get a gallon of milk.


III.

Watch out the window
at the towering skyline
over city's edge
where the dingy walls all glow
with street artists' creations.


IV.

See how it changes
from factories and rubble
run down apartments
children playing in the streets
hanging out on the corners.


V.

Invisible gate
leading to a brand new world:
shops and restaurants
leading to the district where
steel and glass towers rise.


VI.

Government buildings
banks and expensive hotels
the concierge waits
for the drivers to give them
the precious keys for the night.


VII.

It's amazing how
two worlds can coexist
bleed into the other
gradually transition
as the streetcar drives on by.


VIII.

From one end of town
to the other and then back
all day, every day
Feast your eyes out the window
and not just look, really see.