by Marvin G. Kimbrough

The ghost of East Eleventh Street hovers from IH-35 to Rosewood Avenue
Crossing Branch, San Marcos, Waller, Whelles,
Curve, Lydia and Navasota streets
He hovers in warm, mid-morning mist

Listening for blues and jazz and love songs live--from the Victory Grill,
the Black Cat, Charlie's Playhouse, the Cotton Club and Spañada,
Sounds mingling with the aroma of sausage from Deacon Jones'
and Mary Neighbors' pits and breakfast bacon from Southern Dinette
and the fresh smells of rising dough
for sweet rolls and coffee cake from the bakery--and hovers
Searching for the culture comforts of barber shops,
beauty shops and more barbecue,
hovering, he seeks the cheap burial insurance companies,
shoe shops and car shops, the office of the black female doctor,
Deluxe Hotel, the Masonic temple with the classic columns, he hovers
Searching for tiny footprints of boys and girls
Boys and girls who walked East Eleventh Street on Sunday morns
Going to Sunday school at Ebenezer Baptist
and Metropolitan African methodist Episcopal churches--
Boys dressed in knickers and Buster Brown shoes, new from Dacy's
and girls, girls in dresses of organdy and dotted Swiss and pique.
Boys and girls who stopped at the corner grocery to make prime decisions--
To spend the Sunday school money then--
or wait until church was over and spend it a Lawson's Ice Cream Parlor

The ghost of East Eleventh Street
Hovers from IH-35 to Rosewood Avenue
Crossing Branch, Sand Marcos, Waller, Wheeles,
Curve, Lydia and Navasota streets
He hovers in warm, mid-morning mist