Counting Descent

by Clint Smith

Ode to 9th & O NW You hundred-year-old bastion of merriment You crumbling icon You hollow walls & sacrosanct floors You kitchen where rice burned & whiskey spilled You wondrous accident You ephemeral cacophony You first taste of adulthood You crumbled piece of adulthood You omnipresent laughter You roommate shuffleboard You millennial experiment You eye of the gentrified storm You Duke Ellington in a world full of yoga studios Three years in your grasp & we watched them turn the Boys & Girls Club into happy hour It’s something about how you sit on the corner at the intersection of where I learned to tell someone they made me feel like everything & nothing How you made growing up existential How one can be lulled into nostalgia by the clamor of an audacious love.

WOW 🙍🏻‍♀️👵🏻🙏