ELEGY FOR THE TWO PEOPLE KILLED BY BOBBY KENNEDY’S FUNERAL TRAIN AT ELIZABETH STATION, NEW JERSEY by Glenn Robert Swetman Jerry Bruno said, “We found out a few minutes later that we’d hit five people, and we thought then that we must have killed them all, although, as it turned out, only two died and the others were injured,” Jerry said. “We first tried to get word to the press not to tell…” From then on Mr. Bruno was in complete control of the train’s speed. Plugged into the engineer’s radio he slowed and slowed and slowed while the crowds grew and old ladies crossed themselves and veterans saluted and children threw flowers and put coins in front of the tracks to be picked up as squashed souvenirs of the dead. Yes, because of those five, Jerry Bruno was in complete control and he showed Abe what a real good advance man can do. This poem is layered and layered. Jerry Bruno co-wrote a book entitled, “The Advance Man.” Here, the author lets politicians take over the operation of the train, now with its wheel being spun more carefully.
Posted on January 8th, 2010 by admin in Poetry
In this prose poem, Dr. Swetman does more than tell a story. He shows the indifference of the people and the arrogance and uncaring attitude of the politicians through dialogue, imagery and use of appropriate language levels.
I read the poem, then I read 4.1.1. AGAIN, then read the poem again…I have trouble finding a rhythm to it, but that’s probably just me. It does contain emotion, not from the author or narrator, but from the old ladies, the soldiers and the children.
That’s all I’ve got, but at least I’m trying. Maybe eventually some of it will sink in.
I’ll be checking back to see the other comments and maybe that will help.
“put coins in front of the tracks to be picked
up as squashed souvenirs of the dead.”
This feels like a paralogical metaphor to me.
The first outward indications this piece carries is the layout; in that the text does not fill the entire width of the page as normal text would. This would be aesthetic value. Dense expression is also present. Yikes. I think I need to go back and read that 4.1.1. some more.