South of the Tracks

The Mug Shot

South of the Border

Swan Song

Heartbreak Tango

South of the Tracks

South Avenue

The Mug Shot

Reading the Gazette online—

Going back over the archives

Your checkered police record

Tickets for the usual—

Expired driver’s licenses and

Speeding tickets & old tabs

The more serious charges—

Assault and battery, ending up

Lansing Prison, drunk driving

But the most tragic thing—

Your ravaged face, long hair

Scraggly beard, the Mug Shot

So different than that pic—

Puffing your proud muscles

Chest, wrestling team, 1960

South of the Border

There’s this sorta kinda—

South of the tracks attitude

Lurking inside my libido

It comes and goes—

But it’s always been there

Like some Mexican Bandito

A strange relationship—

Like Poncho and his lover

The handsome Cisco Kid

They way they smile & sing—

“Oh Cisco!” & “Oh Poncho!”

In those old b & w movies

I never said it but that‘s—

The way I felt about You

At the Santa Fe Station

Swan Song

It doesn’t take much time—

For Kansas to grind things

Down to just about Nothing

Emporia has this Entropy—

Buildings, streets continuously

Decaying, fading, falling

People especially decaying—

The life of a town decays &

Nothing lasts forever

Growing up though—

I used to think foolishly

Things never changed

But everything changes—

Even chic Marlene Dietrich

Sings her last Swan Song

Heartbreak Tango

But south of the tracks—

Some things seemed to

Always stay in business

Caligula’s City Pool—

During the summers

Sizzling in the heat

Strange Monkey Island—

The Cottonwood Bridge

And the Santa Fe tracks

I used to think that—

My love for Lopez was

Going to last forever

But, well, both of us—

Like lost our whatever

It doesn’t last forever

South of the Tracks

Down dumpy Commercial—

South of the Santa Fe tracks

 There’s another world

At least it seemed—

That way to me back then

Just a North End whitey kid

Down past my mother’s—

Second husband’s garage

By the SKanky Ship’s Lounge

The Casa Ramos Restaurant—

Now on the First Ave corner

It’s getting rave reviews

South Avenue

Further down dying Commercial—

Taking a right there at Gothic

Stoic Reeble’s Monuments

Tombstones in the front yard—

For sale for Maplewood Cemetery

Last thing that Emporians buy

Empty Santa Fe freight yards—

On the right going down past

The stark ghosts of La Colonia

Past La Casitas Park with its—

Basketball Court & Shelter

For Hispanic heritage, fiestas

All the way to Prairie Ave—

Westward boundary to the

Lonely Tall Grass Flint Hills