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In Response to a Rumor That the Oldest Whorehouse in Wheeling, West Virginia Has Been Condemned

By James Wright 1927–1980 James Wright

I will grieve alone,

As I strolled alone, years ago, down along

The Ohio shore.

I hid in the hobo jungle weeds

Upstream from the sewer main,

Pondering, gazing.

I saw, down river,

At Twenty-third and Water Streets

By the vinegar works,

The doors open in early evening.

Swinging their purses, the women

Poured down the long street to the river

And into the river.

I do not know how it was

They could drown every evening.

What time near dawn did they climb up the other shore,

Drying their wings?

For the river at Wheeling, West Virginia,

Has only two shores:

The one in hell, the other

In Bridgeport, Ohio.

And nobody would commit suicide, only

To find beyond death

Bridgeport, Ohio.

James Wright, “In Response to a Rumor That the Oldest Whorehouse in Wheeling, West Virginia, Has Been Condemned” from Above the River: The Complete Poems and Selected Prose. Copyright © 1990 by James Wright. Reprinted by permission of Wesleyan University Press.

Source: Above the River: The Complete Poems and Selected Prose (1990)

Biography

James Wright was frequently referred to as one of America's finest contemporary poets. He was admired by critics and fellow poets alike for his willingness and ability to experiment with language and style, as well as for his thematic concerns. In the Minnesota Review, Peter A. Stitt wrote that Wright's work both represents and parallels the development of the best modern American poets: "Reading the Collected Poems of James . . .

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