And now, James Wright

Color Record No. 20, Side B:

and this one came up in class today:

In Response to a Rumor That the Oldest Whorehouse in Wheeling, West Virginia Has Been Condemned

By James Wright

I will grieve alone,

As I strolled alone, years ago, down along  

The Ohio shore.

I hid in the hobo jungle weeds

Upstream from the sewer main,

Pondering, gazing.

I saw, down river,

At Twenty-third and Water Streets

By the vinegar works,

The doors open in early evening.

Swinging their purses, the women  

Poured down the long street to the river  

And into the river.

I do not know how it was

They could drown every evening.

What time near dawn did they climb up the other shore,  

Drying their wings?

For the river at Wheeling, West Virginia,  

Has only two shores:

The one in hell, the other

In Bridgeport, Ohio.

And nobody would commit suicide, only  

To find beyond death

Bridgeport, Ohio.