Disaster Movie Theme Music

Tonight I am a man
tap-dancing the train tracks

red light--red--
while the 10:50 nears,

sweet horn blowing.
I jitterbug,

Charleston bound--
take down

the tarnished stars, my breath
shining them up new.

Tonight I want a tongue
stuck to the wintry track

& swear when that freight train comes
I'll yank my thick head back.

Tonight I'll grab hold
the striped arm

of the crossing bar--

let it dance me
round real slow.

Tonight I tango
alone.

Copyright © 2001 by Kevin Young.

Kevin Young is Ruth Lilly Professor of Poetry at Indiana University, Bloomington. He is the author of To Repel Ghosts (2001) and Most Way Home (1995), selected by Lucille Clifton as part of the National Poetry Series and winner of the John C. Zacharis First Book Prize from Ploughshares.

...