Lonely Avenue

Free newspaper in my left hand,
I will soon toss without reading the sex ads that sustain it,
Walking down the Avenue,
On Easter Saturday afternoon
Shoppers, students, pass me,
black beggars, white punks in black,
Lesbian couples, cripples, tattoos,
Smells of pizza, Indian food, espresso steam,
Cellphones ringing unfamiliar songs,
I thought I heard one play Lonely Avenue,
composed by Doc Pomus,
Sung by Ray Charles
And much later by Dion, Dion di Mucci

I live on a lonely avenue
Little girl, since you said we're through
Now I feel so sad and blue
It's all because of you

At the next corner, a man over fifty, with a bullhorn
Assures me Resurrection did happen,
I walk two Avenue blocks, and
a man over fifty with a bullhorn
Assures me Revolution will happen.

The sun comes out when I reach my car,
None of this having an effect on my life,
I drive towards the library
To look up a word in a book I once read,
Describing a man there I never knew,
And ones I knew then and now.