the true rankings

-the true rankings-

Looking west toward the river

just before twilight, the Sun
cuts into the greying
horizon of Rhode Island

as if sawing through the planet.
The tenement houses
on the eastern hillside,
with one last burn against
the weathered shingles,

exhaust the daylight from their lungs.

It doesn’t stop the dogs
from nosing around on the street,

or me for that matter.
The dogs have their own
self-centered plans.

The street's less active

with everybody home from work
and ready for supper.

Maybe they’ll go out to eat.

The diners are open late on Fridays

and the food can’t be an object of discussion,
being the same as it was forty years ago

and the interiors too, save for the kids
who spin less aggressively
on their stools at the counters.

Earnshaws Diner,
sitting as far west as the land allows
before reaching the banks of the river,
rates 2 stars out of 5 with its hash and eggs,—
but earns another to total three,
after it was force-tucked beneath the new
95 West ramp,

adding to its early morning restlessness.

Sambo’s Diner
on Pleasant Street gets 3 out of 5,
not for its lack-luster menu,
but for the pleasure

of the crazy company it keeps,—
the Friday night parking lot rich
with threatening Super Stocks
intent for a shot at the highway.

The little Nite-Owl Diner
sitting by itself like a lost shoe
on the wide-open corner
of Pleasant and Eastern Avenue burns

the flat-side of the tongue
with a hot, melted-cheddar cheese  

scooped inside a steamed hamburger bun,

earning an extra star to make it 4, but only
after two o'clock in the morning.

Al Mac's Diner
at the foot of the Seven Hills,

the one which pressed its meatloaf plate
into our throats after the funerals,
where the working waitresses

called us “Honey";

Al Mac's,
gleaming in stainless armor,

the hungry tin-knocker’s dream;
the gas station attendant's
half-hour reprieve;
Al Mac's,
where the grinning City Council candidates,
glad-hand
the mouths-full sitting in their booths,
who show up in cuff-rolled dress shirts
three weeks before the elections
disrupting the revolutions of its perennial
population;

Al Mac's Diner,—
which greets the sunrise
with the clatter of beginnings

and where the burgeoning
Moon will lift its weight to sing its tune
of late-night romance;— 5 stars, easy.

                                              City of Fall River