6758. SOMETIMES

SOMETIMES

Sometimes  -  and even in the largest cities  -

it seems like village life is at the fore : the family

lines, the connected people, everyone knowing

everyone. You want ice cream on St. Luke's Place?

We can get it from Jerry. You want felafel on St. Mark's?

Hey, that too is somehow Jerry. Here's the cigarette man

again, walking around with his singles. 

I think his name is also Jerry.

-

I helped build a shack here, yeah, right here, in 1969. It

stood half a year; we'd painted it dark green and hired

some Chinese flunkie to try and sell baked waffles for us.

Made a few bucks before he torched the place. He got away,

and we were left with a few bucks and no more worries.

-

Sometimes I think fondly back to times of yore;

and sometimes I get mesmerized by memory and

something more : I remember you, that little face,

your prepping ways, your enthusiastic way of 

calling out the temper of the days.