LIMITED

I AM riding on a limited express, one of the crack trains

of the nation. Hurtling across the prairie into blue haze and dark air

go fifteen all-steel coaches holding a thousand people. (All the coaches shall be scrap and rust and all the men

and women laughing in the diners and sleepers shall

pass to ashes.) I ask a man in the smoker where he is going and he

answers: "Omaha."