Discovered Diary
He once wrote…
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 with apples and grapes
Knife sharpening push carts
Their grinding wheels
Ever turning razor-sharp edges
Making cheap meat cut special
Tilted fedoras tipped
Atop cashmere-draped gangsters
Greeted numbers-hungry tenants
While knickered 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 passing
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
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
Boredom no more
Still…
Aging men continue writing
But I have stories from memory, lots of them, and now have time to write them all if I wish.
Your stories and your poems and prosetry tend to focus on Big Apple life and its rather uniqueness compared to other places. Like Tokyo and other big cities, NYC breeds struggle and creativity, but is not a place to raise children. Those that stay there until old age, often have no one left to pass their legacy to. That includes diaries.
But once in a while, someone will find one of those diaries from a lonely person, and find that there is a plot to a life story there worth telling. Makes me wonder if you found a castoff diary from someone and got to read it.
Ron
and all that is left is a semi sterile environment
which can appear soulless to the aged…
memories, however, can often be over emotionally
persuasive of better times…
Let the diaries be read, appreciated…
and and their spirit live on…
Love ya!
Jane