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 did Mike (alone!)-- a proud grocer

rehomed here with bloodied apron & so much parcel string.

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

stormed by a lost wife and son

(corrupting childhood angel in me even saw that!),

& charred lungs...saw the vacant steely front, years later, of his defeated castle, with empty stained and unswept streets

          drying under blue skies

(2024)