114. FULL MOON AND SEARCHING

FULL MOON AND SEARCHING
(Asbury Park in Winter)
No more looking for gold or searching in
penny arcades - that's all over and the monkey-men
and the organ-grinders have all been fired. That
leaves nothing behind. Wherever there was an emblem
before is just now a blank spot on the wall.
-
No soporifics here. I merely do what I want.
My dalliance with the likes of you and Matilda too
is over : both of you were lovely but now I wish you well -
at the wishing well. And, at this wishing well, I just
want to tell you both that I did love you, each, once.
-
No more magic in the cornflakes.
No more lame jokes in line at the
outdoor gym - waiting pompously for
the big guys to pass. As if you had something
to prove to them (they could break you in two
like a stick). The sickly ocean is still roaring
behind our backs. The black dudes, with their knives,
are still trying to stare us down on the ramp to the
Howard Johnson's. The old Boardwalk now looks
like shit - prime real estate it ain't. Let's just say adieu.
-
That'll have to do.