Poems

Howie Good: “The Trolley Problem”

Howie Good

The Trolley Problem

Three kids are playing on the trolley tracks,
oblivious to the trolley bearing down on them.

You can save the kids, but only by pushing
a really, really fat man with a job and a family
in front of the trolley to divert it from its path.

The surprised look in his eyes is like the cry of a bird.

You will understand when I show you.


Howie Good is a professor emeritus at SUNY New Paltz whose newest poetry book, The Dark, is available from Sacred Parasite, which will also publish his forthcoming book, Akimbo, in 2025.

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