A friend of mine moved from an apartment we both lived in – but consecutively –
\nTo her mother’s home in the suburbs
\nWhile awaiting one of a sequence of
\nRescheduled surgeries.<\/p>\n
She fell
\nGetting off of a bus on Grand Avenue
\nWith its warped surface that scuffs loafers
\nAnd trips worn out sneakers
\nWith equal disregard.<\/p>\n
Grand Avenue has some old beauties, but was
\nMainly the dividing line between which side of downtown had money and which side was just
\nWaiting to go to the East side.<\/p>\n
As I wait for a bus,
\nAn older lady sits cross-legged on the pavement. In the 50s, Grand Aenue’s heyday, she would have worn a dress and fretted into
\nA damp handkerchief.<\/p>\n
Carrying my market bag, I, too, if I had been walking down Grand Avenue in the ’50s, would have resembled a McCalls dress pattern cover, if slightly wilted by June mimicking July.<\/p>\n
Grand Avenue’s glamour is faded and a shirtless man whose tattoos settle into the creases of his aged flesh spits on the other side of the street<\/p>\n
Another poet, maybe Ginsberg, would give prayers the Grand Avenue’s lost.<\/p>\n
I get on my bus, rebuking myself for paying another fare, forgetting I still
\nHad time on my transfer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A friend of mine moved from an apartment we both lived in – but consecutively – To her mother’s home in the suburbs While awaiting one of a sequence of Rescheduled surgeries. She fell Getting off of a bus on Grand Avenue With its warped…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50567"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50567\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51618,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50567\/revisions\/51618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}