Grand Street

An Asian man in the subway, Grand Street Station--on that dog leg of the B Train, way downtown, then across on a diagonal to the Lower East Side. Chinatown, as it were--Chrystie Street--not far from East Broadway, the old Forwarts building, and Feldheim Books, at number 96--ancient volumes in a rain-leaky room, worn bindings, smell of age, water to a sink or toilet, the pipe running half way down the wall--then a gap--until a clay flange just below picks up the stream.

Today: condominiums and conceit... "That was then, this is now..."