“How wide the sidewalks were!

You stood in the middle of ours.

Definite and debonair.

Mama with a big black

Patent leather handbag.

Strap

Draped over her arm.

Chic. Loose coat holding no baby inside.

Madaddy suited, slanted wide brim hat.

At attention

As if he were seeing Paris

After the war.

All smiles.

Behind them the tall trees

Made shade. And fences

Held back the houses

And kept them off the sidewalk

And out of the street

Steel-veined with streetcar lines

Before they were erased like markings

From a game of hopscotch.

Were there shadows rolling in under the trees?

I see them now.”