Following is an excerpt from the poem “Dearborn Suite” in the collection “News of the World” by Philip Levine (Knopf, 2009).

.

Dearborn Suite

.

1.

Middle-aged, supremely bored

with his wife, hating his work,

unable to sleep, he rises

from bed to pace his mansion

in slippers and robe, wondering

if this is all there ever

will be to becoming Henry Ford,

the man who created

the modern world. The skies

above the great Rouge factory

are black with coke smoke, starless,

the world is starless now, all

because he made it in

his image, no small reward.

. . .

.

—Philip Levine (c) 2009