Childhood home goodbyexxxxxxI give you to the ailanthus who take over
the place of the venerable ginko phallus whose fruit still manages to drop
thru the prepubescent treeʼs branchesxxxxThe blockʼs gone black
under a canopy & busted again streetlight but I can smell them
sulfur & semen underfootxxxxxSylvia & her cats are dead but the top floor
still makes me sneezexxxxxShelia & John who yelled at me to be quiet
in the hallxxxxxdied years and years agoxxxxxItʼs cold enough for the traffic signal
timer to snap againxxxxxThe cars change but the trafficʼs the samexxxxxIn 30 seconds
these brownstones are lit by backed up headlights at the mercy of a clock gone haywire
It ticks over my childhood stoop where I fell age four & voila this childhood scar
under my childhood eye that never saw as well as I think it didxxxxxEven at night
I could read the weathered 7-Up billboard above Vicʼs Garage across the way
but now I can barely make out the subtle difference between Art in Americas on the living room
floor or on the stoop where I give them back to America with the rest of this place