The Agway Store

It’s another abandoned building;
another sign of decay in this part of town.
Another dream faded and peeling,
like the paint on the walls.
“Don’t ignore the broken windows,”​ they say,
but when the report came in,
the police just shrugged and drove away.
Another broken window
in another empty shop.
Shrugs; ​“What am I supposed to do,
and what is it to you?
They should knock it down anyway…”
More signs of desolation and decay
in my hometown.

I recall driving down past the mill yard
with my daddy in the old 1952 International.
Not the daddy who barely walks
and sometimes seems confused when he talks,
but the other daddy who was young and strong.
I remember him lifting a hundred pound
bag of grain to each shoulder
and carrying them around the place.
This was the old Agway Feed store,
now it isn’t much of anything anymore;
another empty shell with weeds in the parking lot.
Another sign of decay in this part of town,
another abandoned building waiting to be torn down.

 

Louis Marin is a photographer, writer of an online blog and daily spiritual devotional as well as the author of five poetry anthologies that were available through PublishAmerica. Hia poems have been published in many magazines and online ‘zines, including, Terrorhouse Magazine, The Pangolin Review, The Quail Bell, Oddville, and Madness Muse, to name a few.

Glenn Bowie is a published poet, lyricist and photographer from the Boston area. He also owns and operates an elevator company that supplies custom-built elevators for clients from New England to Hollywood. Author of two poetry and photograph collections (Under the Weight of Whispers and Into the Thorns and Honey) on Big Table Publishing, he donates all profits from his books to various charities for the homeless and local animal shelters.