A story shining from every window
no third wall separating the store
from the shopper, the poem from the poet
shape, light, and color
those were his stock in trade
a socialist and Jewish refugee
escape artist from Nazi Germany
who left the theater to build a world
of visual surprise
artificial lights
fancy facades
rose gardens
lured people away
from the Depression
with windows
in fluorescent living color
worked out his own private beef
no more smoke stacks
telephone poles
clanging power lines
strip-malls
created by a country
that didn’t know what it was doing
replaced snake oil
with glass transparency
air conditioning ducts
parking spaces ten feet wide
no difference between the sidewalk
and the interior
everything was coming up nylon stockings
shopping was the architecture
of the 20th century
as big as Gothic cathedrals
or Parisian boulevards
a nation
that drove automobiles everywhere
he rescued suburbanites
from their picket-faced isolation
wanted to create a public space
that offered classes, day care,
entertainment, theater, concerts
a place to camp out with the family
just like his boyhood days in Vienna
a new Strasse of the retail world
Developers, promotors
amd entrepreneurs took over
the malling of America
fell in on itself
gone to graffiti
and graveyards
and big boxes
and police stations
and you, Victor, man of the hour
pushed to the land-wasting seas of parking lots
wrote your own character
in a science-fiction novel
explained to aliens how America
was a clip joint convincing people
to buy everything
they didn’t need.
what survives is brick and mortar
like a house built
by the little piggies
and its Internet twin
electronic and algorithmic
keeping the beat
in a tail-chasing frenzy
stay away
from the wolf.
Holding on to the Fringes of Love
Review of my poetry collection “Two Places”
Children’s book for middle-grade readers, ages 9-12, an urban environmental fantasy set at the edge of a condo development where we meet 10-year-old Leah who has been labeled as the school weirdo. Why? Because she talks to something that’s hidden inside her backpack. Purchase on Amazon. Entertaining for parents as well! If you love the book, please write a quick review. Thanks!