1943, ATLANTA

Down West Peachtree Street from where we lived

In the Alhambra Courts, toward town a block

or so, above the Esso station, I stepped off

A curb, glancing at a passing Pontiac coupe

Driven by a girl about my age. Love at seventeen:

Heartbreak comes and goes like autos passing

On a thoroughfare, but the rip-scars stay a quarter century.