MAPPING THE CITY: DC Places, Part II Stacy Johnson Tuthill   AT THE TROLLEY MUSEUM The gray-haired conductor herds our tour group up filigreed steps into the brick-red box on steel wheels fitted to tracks, complete with a brass hand brake, Victorian ceiling lamps, and hard leather seats. His smile and eyes gather into pleasure as he drones by rote the history of the trolley, at first horse-drawn, then electric cable cars speeding at a breathless fifteen miles an hour. We read signs posted above windows: Arrow shirts with starched cuffs are dignified and proper. $1.50 Food will win the war. We have meatless days, wheatless days and porkless days. Standing on steps or running-board is dangerous. Do so at your own risk. We rock to the electric cable's rattle and hum, musing how far we've come in a lifetime. Sonic jets break sound barriers, rockets puncture space, men walk on the moon, and satellites orbit earth, hauling smart machines with microchips small enough to fit into an ant's mouth. We race the beltway all the way home while voices of our ancestors give chase, their thin whispers warning us to slow down.   Stacy Johnson Tuthill founded SCOP Publications in 1976. She is the author of five books of poems, most recently Painting in the Dark (2007), from which this poem is taken. She edited the anthologies Rye Bread: Women Poets Rising (1977) and Second Rising (1979), and the collection Laurels: Eight Women Poets (1998), which documented all the women who had served up to that time as US Poets Laureate. In 1995, she published a volume of short fiction, The Taste of Smoke: Stories About Africa. She is a winner of the PEN Synddicated Fiction Award and the recipient of grants from the Maryland State Arts Council. She lives in Catonsville with her husband Dean.   Published in Volume 11, Number 4, Fall 2010.