To order a copy of Finding Home, click here.
In this special feature of our issue today, we are running “Chicago Skyway,” a poem taken from Michael Finch’s new collection of poetry, Finding Home.
Chicago Skyway
The toll road climbed and rose up over the sky,
High and upward into the haze and dim,
Soaring over, muscling, bursting, strong, broad-shouldered—
America’s might in its mass, belching, smelt, sludge steel,
The air and lungs stinging, gasp-breath of smokestack exhale.
Hegewisch below, tight rows of neat, nested workmen homes,
Men and pails and shovels and brawn, union-proud.
Down a Falstaff few, a packed VFW, and member lanes Thursday,
And kneel down; pray to a worshiped, merciful God come Sunday noon.
Far below, see the fisherman drop in Calumet murk, barges flow.
A power, Ruhr-like force, turned the world on its end
In this little corner of a city built for one end
To make the world and everything in it on its back.
Chicago’s once might, in awe of its eternal force in my child’s eyes,
But now a skyway to graveyards and empty hallows,
Rusted shells of a dying death throes nation’s loss.
Yes, smell the air fresh, and cheer the jobs far and forever long gone, and Watch the misery and hopelessness rise where the Skyway once towered.
*
A book from a new voice in poetry, Finding Home is a collection about home, nature, love, places in America, and a view of the plight of Christians in the world today. If your heart ever hearkens back to a simpler time and home, Finding Home will touch you in a way that poetry has not before.
Michael Finch is the president of the David Horowitz Freedom Center in Los Angeles. A true American patriot and defender of the Christian faith, he has spent his life fighting to preserve America’s freedom and liberties.
Mike has been published widely in a number of journals and is a frequent speaker. This, his first book of poetry, will find its place in recapturing American culture.
Make sure to order a copy of Finding Home HERE.
To read Mike Finch’s poem “Superior,” click here.
And if Chicago Skyway resonates with you, make sure to leave a comment below.