Mamie

Mamie beat her head against the bars of a little Indiana

town and dreamed of romance and big things off

somewhere the way the railroad trains all ran.

She could see the smoke of the engines get lost down

where the streaks of steel flashed in the sun and

when the newspapers came in on the morning mail

she knew there was a big Chicago far off, where all

the trains ran.

She got tired of the barber shop boys and the post office

chatter and the church gossip and the old pieces the

band played on the Fourth of July and Decoration Day

And sobbed at her fate and beat her head against the

bars and was going to kill herself

When the thought came to her that if she was going to

die she might as well die struggling for a clutch of

romance among the streets of Chicago.

She has a job now at six dollars a week in the basement

of the Boston Store

And even now she beats her head against the bars in the

same old way and wonders if there is a bigger place

the railroads run to from Chicago where maybe

there is

romance

and big things

and real dreams

that never go smash.