Chicago is Littered With The Corpses of My Retail Life…by Robert M. Katzman
by Robert M. Katzman © April 10, 2016
Like discarded trash from yesterday’s opened toys
I see the ghostly echo of my career
Sprinkled across the Chicago like tarnished glitter
Tho’ they used to sparkle for me
Perhaps many people witness
The fast-forwarding of their lives
While still living them
Time relentlessly unfolding
Blank pages written by an unseen hand
Caldwell Grammar School, South Side of Chicago
1962-1964
When I was 12, I sold firecrackers
Purchased from a non-judgmental
And very silent source in
Chicago’s mysterious Chinatown
Ladyfingers to Cherry bombs
Roman Candles to Sky Rockets
To my less enterprising classmates