-the true rankings-

Looking westward toward the river

at the juncture of Bedford and twilight, the Sun

cuts into the greying horizon of Rhode Island

as if a circular saw cut a clean line through the Earth.

The tenement houses on the western hillside, exhale

one last breath against the weathered shingles,

exhausting the daylight from their lungs.

It doesn’t stop the dogs

from nosing around on the street,

or me for that matter.

But the dogs have their own self-centered plans.

The street's less active at dusk

with most everybody at home from work,

settling in, 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 dinner interiors too, save for the kids

who nowadays 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 totaling three,

after it was force-tucked beneath the new

95 West ramp, adding to its 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

thirsting for a quarter-mile 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,

glazed in stainless siding,

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 lunch-time constituents,

who show-up in cuff-rolled dress shirts

ready to "get to work for you"!
three weeks before the elections

disrupting the diner's revolution of its perennial

population;

Al Mac's,—

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.

                                              Fall River