Another evening in Remington Town, New York…

Trapped – like a trespasser roaming the grounds of a large estate searching for some buried treasure. A desolate man sitting on desolation row waiting for his fair maiden to arrive. A bus pulls up but only an old lady walks off with a pair of boxing gloves over her shoulder.

Lady walks aimlessly searching for the corner where Ava Gardner once appeared smiling. A shoe shiner  is singing an old blues song about lost love while Homer sits and dreams listening to the lyrics.

“Romance has died and the end is near” a preacher is preaching in a loud sing-song voice. Passersby pass him by nodding their heads in disagreement. A river rushes a mile down the road with a bridge above it leading walkers from East to West on this autumn evening.

Trapped –  like a prisoner waiting for execution and contemplating repentance. The warden is pacing in his office as the sun is getting closer to falling into the horizon.

Bells ring and ghosts are floating onto the disappearing light – into the darkness with the echoes from the preacher bouncing off the peeling painted walls.

Trapped – as a bird in a cage with only a sesame stick to peck at as if it can take the place of a sirloin steak. A martini sits untouched and cold as an old man contemplates the open window. An alarm clock is ringing waking up the memories stored somewhere in the slab of beef in his head.

Lost like a child in a maze – which way is home, which way is home?

A door is unopened and locked.

A fence is low enough for scaling were it not for the sharpened blades atop.

The bridge is no longer reaching across as the shoe shiner ascends the hill towards the small village on the other side; the preacher has packed his messages and is walking towards the whore house on Red Street as the prisoner is given his last dinner and his final rights.

Ladies dance in pairs, children sit and stare as the shoe shining man is walking up the stairs of his one room home.

The sun has left and the electric chair has been warmed up and tested. A phone call and a pardon, a blue bird is perched on a branch outside the courthouse and the trespasser smiles as he finds the perfect spot to spend the night.

Freedom bells are ringing, the bluebird is singing and the sun has risen once again. The prisoner is in plain clothing and walking towards a stop with a bus ticket and 33 dollars. An empty martini glass on the floor shattered, all the ghosts have left for the day and the Preacher is well dressed and showered all ready to repent.

The child is in the maze but finds his way back home again and the ladies are still dancing in pairs as the lonely man stares and the shoe shining man descends the hill towards the town square.

Another day in Remington Town, New York…