Autorow

Young country young industry

wheels, mobility, boom times,

offerings spilling from showroom windows

lining the street for blocks

Names speaking to power and style

and excitement and desire:

Model T Ford Dodge

Kenmore Touring Car

Cadillac LaSalle Phaeton

Packard Hudson

Pierce Arrow Buick

Hupmobile Franklin

Duesenberg Chevrolet

Oldsmobile salesmen

in straw hats

Autorow roars, empowers

movement, shrinks time,

invents commutes, builds

suburbs, accelerates

its own dispersal, spells

its own eventual doom

commuters drive away

with the names they bought,

desires fulfilled

The street quiet in its subsidence,

windows boarded, empty, pigeons

occupy the architecture as homeless

shelter in doorways tattooed

by old signs, the silence broken

only by the rolling of empty bottles

Industry birthday, bits and data, pixels

lowing on webs of electronic screens,

ideas flowing, seeking old space

to suggest stability, windows cleaned,

debris hauled away

street reborn

Photograph: St. Louis Auto Row (Locust Street) in the 1920s.