James Wright 

Autumn Begins in Martins Ferry, Ohio 

In the Shreve High football stadium, 
I think of Polacks nursing long beers in Tiltonsville, 
And gray faces of Negroes in the blast furnace at Bnwood, 
And the ruptured night watchman of Wheeling Steel, 
Dreaming of heroes. 

All the proud fathers are ashamed to go home. 
Their women cluck like starved pullets, 
Dying for love. 

Therefore, 
Their sons grow suicidally beautiful 
At the beginning of October, 
And gallop terribly against each other's bodies. 
 

The Branch Will not Back
Middletown, Connecticut: Wesleyan University Press, 1967