Squeezing Woodside

Puzzling over the MTA Poetry in Motion poster for Jim Moore's "Love in the Ruins." The art is John Cavanagh's Commuting/Community (1986) from the 61st St. IND/LIRR station in Woodside.

Or, in the MTA's cropping:
                                      W-O-O-D
                                             I-D.

Now take a look at the complete work, displayed in the station, in a photo by by Robbie Rosenfeld from www.nycsubway.org:

What's a letter here or there, when you've got a railroad to run?

The text of the poem itself (also an excerpt):

     i remember my mother toward the end,

folding the tablecloth after dinner
     so carefully,
as if it were the flag
     of a country that no longer existed,
but once ruled the world.