Random Acts of Poetry

Random Acts of Poetry

Zabriskie Street

The frame houses stand
Shoulder to shoulder,
Intimate as a church choir,
This crowd of stocky

Geezers staring,
Blank-eyed and dumbfounded
At a wiggly image
In a funhouse mirror.

Some greybeards
Are in sad repair--
Fallen arches, suffering
From shingles.

And the whole crowd presents
A mouth of uneven teeth,
Rows of dull Chicklets
with a sad gap here and there

That some rapacious dentist
Will fill with his quick mortar
And cookie-cutter caps
Of bright, false brick.