Belfast

[Chop Suey - Lisa A Butler]

Rooftop of the beaten tenement on 3rd and Harrison
has "Belfast" painted black on yellow
on the side.
The old 'Frisco wood is
shown with weather-beaten rain boards
and a washed-out blue bottle--once painted for wild commercial reasons
by an excited soul to write.
As firemen came last afternoon
and raised the ladder
to a fruitless fire
that was not there.

So, is "Belfast" singing in this time
when brands forgotten
taste washed-in?
Rain, the gullies forgotten
everybody gone
the acrobats of the tenement
who dug Belfast
divers all
and the divers all dove.
-Jack Kerouak, Poems from the Unpublished Book of Blues, from Blues and Haikus (featuring Al Cohn & Zoot Sims)