Carousel Gone

“I hitch-hiked to Asbury Park . . . when I got there, I was exhausted—” i

Carousel gone
“No plans, lady, just making the building stable.
Keep away from the machine.”
Enable me, construction man, to see beyond coarse gritty sand
Mermaid vamp and debauch
Rests upon a tarnished couch
Where goest dream place childhood?
Face the ocean where once we stood
Soggy foggy July morn
Hung over and still forlorn
Parking deck hangs undone
In the midst gray cold no sun
Hope rises with the waves
Knocked down by greedy knaves
And the power of those in power
Ebbs and flows

i Kerouac, Jack. Visions of Cody. (New York: Penguin Books, 1993).