11,019. COME TAG ALONG

COME TAG ALONG

You're too small for the big stuff

but that never matters, come tag

along anyway. You can carry my

pieces and go get us coffee, or

hang around just watching while

we take down the walls. These old

lofts are really something  -  one time

17th street here was full of them.

Small-time manufactures, garments,

fabrics, fitting; nuts and bolts, and

buttons too  -  the whole range. It

didn't take much, back then. to 

arrange for a machine shop, with

all its equipment, on these heavy

floors  -  gigantically timbered and

strong. Leather punches, rows of

anything you needed. Now it's 

mostly all gone  -  people seem to

want games or electronics or other

things, the kind of stuff that comes in

already finished, from somewhere

else. I swear, if the Chinese learned

how to make cobwebs, they could

probably sell them here. Old and 

small, the way shops and manufacture 

used to be. That's why, look around,

there's a bar or tavern every 5th

doorway, or, well, used to be, or

seemed like it. Some of those old 

guys, too, they could work pretty

damn good with a buzz on  - half

drunked up for the afternoon. That's

all gone now, no one does that  -  the

new buildings now go up, they take

up nearly the entire block, and then

they add a damned plaza. People

milling around all morning and all

afternoon. Cabs come in  -  you

don't even know they're cabs 

anymore  -  letting out people

and luggage, Idaho and Nebraska,

(I always ask when I see them),

for pity's sake, here to see plays

and museums and the park, always

'Central Park.' Like they've got 

no trees and water in Center City,

Nebraska. And the clothes they

wear, to make you laugh. Grown

fathers too. Cracks me up. They

fly 1500 hundred wasteful miles

to get here, and then I hear them

quibbling  -  'don't run the water

while you're brushing or teeth,' or

'Make sure that goes in recylcling

and not the regular garbage.' Here, 

sit, we can talk some more until 

the others come; leastways I can 

talk, seeing as how I'm doing it 

all. How the heck did you end 

up here? And why? And what

plans do you have for the future?