Mike of the castles

"This is the end

Beautiful friend"

(J. Morrison)

who was wispy as his Dean Martin hair and sweetly ingratiating smile

can make Mike, at his Venetian window

turning a prize apple in his hand

who greets the signora & daughter as do all the stoop-shouldered--

as does Mike (alone!)-- a proud grocer

rehomed here like a bloodied apron & so much parcel string.

I sensed, too, the elegant shiny trophy would be gutted, cruelly stormed

by something like a lost wife and son

corrupting childhood angel in me even saw that!,

& charred lungs... and the vacant steely front, years later, of his defeated

castle, empty stained and unwept like the streets

and skies

(2024)