A shop on Columbia Ave

A shop on Columbia Ave.

Out of the car
into the store
from the monsoon of concrete
to a hard oak floor.

Books of the Beats
treasure troves
necessity of life
tucked in little alcoves.

A Ginsberg to the left
to the right: Kerouac
Lesbian studies
hidden in the back.

Outside on the lane
close to Broadway
Vesuvios got its fame
from that shop across the way.

Those little old men
glasses and goatees
and their little old women
create masterpieces.

The canon is taught
and most of the died,
but their books are bought
and remembered through time.

(c) Jan 1997