Poems October 1993
Storefront
When Newberry’s closed
in Franklin, New Hampshire—homely lime front
on Main Street, among the closed
storefronts of this milltown depressed
since nineteen twenty-nine;
with its lunchcounter for beans and franks
and coleslaw; with its bins
of peanuts, counters of acrylic,
hairnets, underwear, workshirts,
marbled notebooks, Bic pens, plastic
toys, and cheap sneakers; where Ruby
worked ten years at the iron
cash register, Alcibide
Monbouquet pushed a broom at night,
and Mr. Smith managed—
we learned that a man from Beverly
Hills owned it, who never saw
the streets of Franklin, New Hampshire,
but drew with a well-groomed hand
a line through “Franklin, New Hampshire.”
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This article originally appeared in The New Criterion, Volume 12 Number 2, on page 35
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