Kashiwa-gi-da

Uptown, Yokosuka...

Unusual, a wide street, straight

Among the curved and narrow lanes,

It's now so quiet, somewhat sedate,

Showing few signs of

What it was before...

A neon painted place of joy and sin,

In the years right after the war...

I pause and listen for the ghosts:

Shore Patrol sirens, and riffs

Of jazz, the chatter of touts,

And bar-girl tiffs...

The street, built different,

Absorbed the thrust,

Of carnal appetites & energies,

Pouring beer, sating the lust,

Of an occupying army, now gone away,

As are the bars, returned to dust...

But the street remains, an empty site,

Where a circus once performed,

And the memories aren't quite

Remembered, in the modern morning's light.