Darkness

He walked out of a picture show. The matinee sun closed his eyes, shuddered only somewhat his imaginary state. Zigman Zibanski saw a movie about the highest mountains to be climbed, the wildest rivers to be swum. The man from the old country thirsted for vodka and walked happily to the One Lucky. His thoughts were of an Everest and an Amazon he should see. But soon Zigman knew his true place and drank some more. That night no mountain could be climbed. So onward he staggered ...lonesome in his matinee of darkness

Youth
In long woolen coats we'd wear our youth. Tweed caps atop our heads. Scruffy scarves tucked deeply and tightly against our lion hearts. We were long haired soldiers slouching against the dreaded cold. Sometimes half-drunk we'd congregate around sweet laughter. Speaking of dreams...speaking of girls...speaking of dampened cries of wonder and confusion at what life is. The family wounds gone unsaid. The things we hoped we'd never be. Always the gust of cigarette smoke against our eyes. Cold breath rising, we'd see ourselves as old as winter trees but never understood till now the barren warmth of longing youth.

Belong
A hat grows in Brooklyn
Under an old L Train track the tourist rumbles
His aching body wandering, Manhattan shadows blocking the sun
He walks amidst Williamsburg men:
Spanish, Italian, Jews in old ways
Foreign he feels on snowy streets, the icy sidewalks slipping
This New York for the first time he sees, the tenements
Greatness Boroughed somewhere deep
A hat grows, A tourist grows, An aching body heals
He steps in a shop along the rumbling L Train
The tourist buys a wool cap that is Brooklyn to native eyes
He talks louder, a faster clip as distant men say: You belong

Mother

There was a robbery last night. They broke into Zigman Zibanski's small single room, where there was a leaky corner sink.

He owned nothing of value, but a gold picture frame with a photo of his mother. That's what they stole. Zigman felt sad as he turned up the fallen chair and put disheveled clothes into place. He then drank vodka and fell heavily back into bed. When he was especially drunk he thought of his old country and the days behind the iron curtain where the police took his mother away.

This was his secret, of course. He told no one of that time. Even his friends he'd never let inside. He'd only meet them at the front door and then they'd go to the One Lucky and drink. If not for those nights, his heart would leak like a corner sink.

The Store

Johnny the Kid had crazy eyes for a girl. He kept them secret, hidden behind Ray Ban shades. For months people would say: "What's with Johnny the Kid? He wears those dark glasses night and day."

Those crazy eyes made him crazy inside. One evening he put on a fancy suit he stole from a store. His shaky fingers knotted a silk tie. He was nervous, for this was the night he'd put his shades aside and knock on the girl's front door.

Her mother answered his call and looked nervous into his blood shot whites. She said her daughter that morning left the Square Corner. Went to the big city to live with her new boyfriend.

Johnny the Kid felt sad. But he felt free, too. He dropped his suit at the steps of the store. He went home and saw the world with new eyes.

New York Story, Another Day
Drinking,
Eating,
Under a moonless sky a cafe bleeds:
laughter,
thoughtful cries,
these words as slashing tongue cuts storied wounds:
A tired New York City, like a hero I can't say
movies,
books,
politics best avoided
Then we speak the character of man: cynical and loving,
we fight some more
The touch of drink as lonely voice mixed with bedraggled eyes,
we argue on
but a skyscraper's whisper: its closing time, 3am
Come home again they say and drink with us
A New York song I'll play for another day

Gone Fishing

The Square Corner will closed for the next couple of weeks. Time to take a leave of absence; to give the inhabitants a mental health break--the guys at the One Lucky can fend for themselves.

I'll be on vacation. If there is an internet cafe nearby, I'll check in. Maybe I'll say hello. If not, we'll talk after a stretch.