From “La Boniche”

Merrimack
Flowing brick and glass
This modern outlook
Onto the old soda fountain
Gone
The leaning downtown clock
Holding vigil at Kearney
Merrimack
Once flowed rivers of fedora hats
As giant beetle buses
Belched thick exhaust
Into Harvey’s Bookstore
Chasing the ghosts of the Rialto Theater.
That old Greek barber!