The smell of aged wood wafts from the open doors
of the Nassau Inn, the children pull the red hands
of parents as they leave the toy store of practice bikes
and train tables, Calder-like mobiles, turning.
The square glimmers with well-loved grass
as students lay leisurely like a scene from
Renoir or Seurat, their fingers of melted chocolate
and ice-cream cones. Who could of dreamed
that this dream of silver shop, and dried goods store,
of bent spoons and lace silhouettes, of colonial windows
lining open markets, music, and the sound of children
stomping on the empty stage, is born not just of dreams,
but the memory of Birch Street and the pots and pans
that used to line their long-gone stoves, of learning to wait
for tent cities and bread lines to pass, of zinc smelted from
the old-earth ore, metallic and shimmering in the sun.
Feiner is the current Poet Laureate of Bucks County. She is the author of the poetry collection, Radishes into Roses, and the children’s book, Who Was Born at Home? Her poetry has also been published in journals and anthologies, and her performances and workshops have received praise in the New York Times, Philadelphia Intelligencer, and on the radio, TV, and the web. She received her MFA from NYU. She resides with her husband and son in Yardley, PA.
