How did the Back of the Yards lose its wonder?
There’s a bull’s head on a post.
I feel his ghost haunting me.
I feel haunted by the ghost
of every animal I’ve ever paid somebody off
to kill; the slaughterhouses are industrialized
assassinations. History backwards: Chicago’s skyscrapers
tumble into piles of bone.
Originally published in the Anthology of Chicago:
http://anthologyofchicago.com/neighborhood/back-of-the-yards/?style