Once He Wrote
by Odin Roark

How quickly the vanishing,
where once shone the sun,
now only skyscraper shade.

Horse drawn wagons
once parked below tenement smiles
as rope baskets lowered with coins
sent back apples and grapes.

Knife sharpening push carts,
their grinding wheels
ever turning razor sharp edges,
making cheap meat cut special.

Tilted fedoras tipped
by cashmere-draped gangsters
greeting numbers-hungry tenants,
while worn knicker-clad children
ran their errands for pennies,
warning shop owners
they needed protection.

Then...

Came post-war-family-building,
turning wanton streets alive.
Baby strollers passed.
Job hungry veterans passed
bearing “No Help Wanted” signs
in slumlord heaven.

How precarious his street became,
teetering between shelter and commerce,
preservation and extinction,
wrecking ball and obstinacy.

Finally...

Housing Department placed him elsewhere nice,
he guessed.

He missed the old stairs though.
Squeaks.
Creaks.
Scrapes.
Sounds and smells.
His special friends.

Now…

Seems little comfort is left.
Modern whoosh of elevators.
Whirls of air conditioning.
Frequent ambulance sirens
stopping below,
providing the lucky ones
with their last ride.

An ignored journal
he once wrote.