Tony the City Booster

 

It's swell, this development down
Devils Design,
a street named for its goings on
near Joy St.--
down where Joy meets Flurry
near the harbor.
This is a fantastic old city
 

fallen behind the times maybe,
what with cracks widening
and time itself a burden
on the bridges and tunnels.
The way kids throw stones at each other
sometimes reminds me of unnatural decay:
simpering disrespect by the grown ups
towards their own kind too,
gives me gas; it's all the same & wearying.
 

But now on Devils Design St.
three shops from the corner
where stood two houses till they fell,
a field has been allowed to take
with trees and a hill on the south side
looking over the boats,
towards, some days, the sunset.
 

This spot of country in the city
hasn't slowed down the trading
or the circular dancing.
If someone's to be cut or rewarded,
it still happens here--on one of those
end of the century streets.