Paradise

Smoking in the snow with a guy

who worked here when this place was

a Howard Johnson. Talking about

how the huge picture of town from the Hill

was exactly where it is now. Crazy.

He said this was his first time back in 20 years.

He said he looked up his buddy’s old place.

It was still in the phonebook, he said. So

he walked to the old street and felt like he

had walked passed it. He went back, he said,

and tried to look at all the house numbers

without looking like a creep. Nothing, he said.

So he crosses the street to see if anything

looks familiar. He’s standing there, and he says

to himself, “That’s gotta be where it was.”

Right where there’s a fucking parking lot.