THE HORSE-CAR TERMINAL
so: the steam the steam
that rises off the horses
the horses in Stieglitz’s
The Horse-Car Terminal New York 1893 is
Marxist is Marxist steam is
money evaporating across screens in a billion glitches
through noise vapid-Capital semio-Capital
Crypto Bit-coin dividends
substanceless steam from
horse to horse-power
to holgrams of a horse and worse steam evaporating
like meaning its its
like meaning evaporating become
insignificant Steigliz himself said it’s a symbol
of my loneliness but it
wasn’t — ignore him the personal is irrelevant — it
was steam it was and is Marxist steam
MATTHEW CALEY’s To Abandon Wizardry [Bloodaxe, 2023], his seventh full-length poetry collection, was awarded The International Milan Nenadic Prize in Novi Sad, Serbia, 2025. His debut, Thirst [Slow Dancer, 1999], was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection. The Sealed Well, a second pamphlet of loose versions from French 19th/20th Century poets is out now from Blueprint.