When they made the tunnels
Over fifty guys died;
That was a long time ago
But just this morning
There was a knife fight
Under East River.

Though the doors slid open
Under Union Square
No one got on there
And the knives
Didn’t make a sound.

Then under 34th Street
The shocked commuters
Found blood at their feet.
It was a lot like the pictures
In the Daily News
Under their arms:
Two guys / broken glass,
Lotta blood / both dead

On the BMT.
Looks like it’s a class war
On the N QB
Double-R downtown:
All the shocked
Commuters of NYC!

Maybe today there is
Something on the rails,
Something in the
Trapped air in the tunnels.
That fight was early
In the morning but now,
Later on the very same day,
On the same subway line,
The music girl is
Pushed on the tracks.
That hand
Pointing crosstown
Calls more shit down on
The troubled neighborhoods;
Puts more writing on
The wall with a spray can
And having sprayed,
Moves up — uptown

On the BMT.
Looks like it’s a race war
On the N QB
Double-R downtown:
All the shocked
Commuters of NYC!

Coulda been the heat
On the BMT
Or the smell of the pee
And the ozone.
Maybe the thought
Of a fare increase
Was on everyone’s mind.
It coulda been the 200-point
Type on the Daily News
Under their arms,
Or the suicide centerpiece;
Maybe it was the thoughts
Of the people
From the suburbs.

A cop walks in
And walks back out again;
The lights are dim.
We’re under Harlem -
we’re under Harlem River

On the BMT.
Looks like it’s a class war
On the N QB
Double-R downtown;
All the shocked
Commuters of NYC!

Mike Enright, 1979