“Sexy As The Dead Bridges”

South of downtown Chicago
but north of the neighborhoods
there are abandoned buildings
and abandoned railroad tracks
that used to carry freight trains
when the abandoned buildings
used to consume and produce
freight from and to the nation.

Bridges across the river
even that far from downtown
were designed to lift and tilt
to give clearance to barges
with freight for and from the trains.

The buildings are abandoned.
The railroads are abandoned.
The bridges are up and locked.
No freight comes in or goes out.

A fashion photographer
posed three half-naked models
in front of a tipped-up bridge.
The bridge was rusted metal,
its counter-weights were concrete.
The fashion models wore jeans
and almost invisible
lace bras that held up their breasts.

“No,” the photographer said,
“no expression, none at all.”

The fashion models somehow
adjusted their lips and eyes
even the tilt of their head
to project no expression.

“It’s fucking dead man cold here,”
one model said, projecting
no expression, none at all.

The photographer said, “Yes,
but you look great. Pure sexy.
Sexy as the dead bridges.”