Pizza on the Alter

On the alter that is the entrance to Rio 

gulls and sparrows search for pizza crusts

and bits of pasta amongst the empty beer cans

 while others raid the dumpster

and dream of a paradise more grand than this.

I stand under the arch and wonder

who thought this structure was a good idea,

an arch between nowhere and nothing,

I have eaten there myself

a lifetime ago, though I had to pay

for my pizza on a cold sunny afternoon

and drank my beer from a thermos.