ON THE CORNER

by Richard Schnap

Once it was a popular head shop
Where they sold paraphernalia of the mind
A church dispensing the instruments
To find God in the sacraments of dreams

Then it became a video store
With a private room in the back
Where lonely men witnessed the wonders
Of goddesses in the darkness alone

Next it turned into a pizza shop
Where the disabled gathered in the morning
To sip at cheap six-packs while watching
The world they’d forsaken pass by

But no matter what reason it stood for
It still brought the same result
A way to forget for a moment
That life promised more than it gave