The Couple Who Lived In 4-E

Behind caution tape, I stand in the shade watching a wrecking ball, tethered to sway And soon with a gasp from the crowd standing by A piece of the past is ready to die I am seeing a lifetime, as it falls to the ground the old tenement house, on Avery Street For years it was home, to folks across town Rarely do people now straddle it's shores Where the root-buckled sidewalks lead up to the doors And feet skipped over the cracks, with swift daily chores All the chalked hopscotch lines have since washed away along with laughter and the gold of the day Summertime colors have withered and fled Into bruised, battered bricks, of memories bled Now, forsaken, this dethroned queen With broken limbs and shattered eyes of shards of glass, and broken lives Still haunt the northwest wing Thick layers of dust, cover the limpid leaves of an old silk rose, within a vase and reminds the gloom of dime store trips when the passing lives, that used to be were alive with simple certainty A curtain, torn, hangs by a thread and shivers, laced within the wind A haven, built, of brick and clay Defaced, disgraced, red-brick decay Each story told, each life it held Now crumbles with each stone, once laid There were some who still remember, well The ones who lived above the rim By whom you could set the clock By footsteps walked on wooden stairs Who made this place a home Now far away, the gossips say "Their health had failed, such hell to pay For now it seems to live each day Someone has to tell them... When to eat, when to dress and when to bathe" People had watched them come and go It was always with hand in hand... Their music was heard between the cracks Mozart, Bach, Glenn Miller bands They had lived here forty years or more Or so the legend goes.... No one really knows for sure, but know it was for years... But now a flower in a vase Is covered dust to dust The lights turned off, no sigh, no trace... with windows black, and lyrics lost The wave that came, went back to sea Like the hopes that fade away Tomorrow's dreams have come and gone to leave a winter's song And is the only thing that holds the years From waning into none.... ___________________________________