just that once too long hesitate
change my fate cause the sun to shine
every other Thursday night
hold the moon til it’s a month late
Tag Archives: envelope stanza
Four Lines
these gaps and holes are worrisome
what if I step into one let
myself falter just that once rest
too long
Four Lines
progress and one-hundred forty
years collapsed water into streets
Canal Wall Wabash and Erie
names that echo faintly
Four Lines
the canal breached wilderness
dense forest too shallow rivers
quilted with huckleberry bogs
frontier dank fertile dangerous
Four Lines
at its inception could anyone
imagine how the Iron Horse
would conquer rails replaced canals
nearly before the ditch was done
Four Lines
Erie Canal an earthen ditch
all but stagnant water breeding
malaria and collecting
garbage but the boats would be grand
Four Lines
footsteps ringing on axe-hewn floors
new rope stacked bins brimming with nails
cut leather stale tobacco smoke
atmosphere of old hardware store
Four Lines
once entertainment lived outside
the box tent revivals silk-hat
parades theaters Roxy Grand
Broadway State all scrambling for eyes
Four Lines
gap-toothed blocks dream of yesterdays
trolley cars and their criss-cross wires
saloons niggling haughty church spires
false fronts gas lights and horse-drawn drays
Four Lines
pink petunias color our streets
but few pedestrians travel
where stores once shoulder to shoulder
fell fired
the crafty sisters 