Postcard From Back East

When the sky goes bruised
as the deep blue in an old postcard
of nostalgia & regret,
high over the far gilt onion
atop the Greek Orthodox Church
shining as if after rain,
observe that one
on the corner
between the twilight
& pale streetlights just fluttering on,
watching a couple of my ladies of the evening
coming from the mirth of the Melba Bar
to slip wetly past on the Drinkerstrasses…
That bent man's still silhouette
perhaps atrociously shaken by memory,
& clutching a black umbrella,
or is it a walking cane?

* * *

Saint Anthony's Haven
Olive Street
Scranton, Pennsylvania