take take take

Old men comfortably wearing tweed jackets
and round midsections hung lights on the iron fire escapes and trusses
that bridged the pre-wars together across Mulberry Street. Alice stepped
onto the sidewalk and buttoned her pea coat to the top. The sun sank
below the skyline, casting cold shadows on the street. She'd walk uptown
to union to catch a cab. She wanted to feel the seasons morph from the
Autumn hues to the rapidly approaching Winter freeze. The money she kept
in the jar on her counter was full. It was the cash she would have spent
on cigarettes, but now was going to a new coat and scarf from Bloomingdales.