Sadness Street - Jeff Boal

[Larry Robinson]

Sadness Street

“Coffee in the Park”, “Larks in the Fields”
Or “A Grove of Fountains”
Would be nicer poem titles
Were it not for the
Silent and stunning starkness
Of leveled neighborhoods, grey and gayless.

Where did all the stuff go?
Some wafted west and south
In choking clouds
And found on far off lawns and streets
as feather weight horror shadows
Of Aunts and tax records
And love letters.

Where are the fortunate
But still trembling souls who
Escaped over embers aglow
In that predawn October night
>From those streets of Santa Rosa,
All now renamed
Sadness Street?

	- Jeff Boal