Electric power supplied to trains
a shielded, electrified third rail
yet deviations arise such as
a literary project under the same name,
by a well known woman's college
while another famous university
of the same city used that very name
in a widely publicized journalistic program;
the term proliferates for even our
previous President invoked the term
referring at one point to the
..."electrically charged third rail of American politics"...
perhaps akin to a journalist's view,
that Jerusalem is the third rail of Israeli politics.

In all likelihood, we too
may have our very own
built in third rail,
one that if touched
may result in an
emotional catastrophe,
a given point buried
deep in our subconscious
so painful its resurfacing
causing emotional trauma
or in instances, our death -
therefore for our own protection,
we place it into the deepest recesses
of our mind where we hope
it will never resurface again.

Herbert Holzbauer
© March 2002

Midi: "The Hustle"

Photograph: IRT 7
Photographer: Hank Eisenstein