I was sitting in a gallery
That used to be Kennedy's
That was the Post Office
Years before river rats made cheese

My home, now a restaurant
Witness to the Inlet burning
When flames lit up floating antiques
Monuments from the day
Streamlined, sleek
The face of grace
Testimonies to the trade

Adonis summered in the waves
Hauled from the banks every autumn
While wintering on wooden stilts
Resting until the spring thaw

Evidence is buried or hidden
That was the catholic school
Those are railroad ties
The water tower was right there

Pictures on a wall hold the truth
Past commanders that held their post
Echoes of colliding glasses
That ended each war story
Blood red quarters filled the jukebox
That played decades of memories

Black derbies, poles of grease
Fishing ponds behind curtains
Regal Tone music on the block
Real custard from a stand

The Grand Union of multitudes
Rejoiced in happy hours
Traditional Wednesday filled the lot
Under the shadows of black hills
Mounds of food for the furnaces
Feeding the hungry steamers
Now lay leveled to a park
Where the rails came to an end

05/21/2004