'Living conditions are hell, ' he said, <br />'it's hard to find a decent cardboard <br />box anymore. They all have these <br />damn compressors that flatten and <br />tie them into cubes with steel bands <br />for recycling.' <br /> <br />'So much for the future, ' I said, handing <br />him some change. <br />'You got that right, bud, ' he said, 'The <br />doors were plumb on, weren't they? ' <br /> <br />Whatever he meant by that, puzzled me, <br />but I nodded, and smiled and went <br />down the stairs and into the underground to <br />take the silver serpent back to Brooklyn. <br /> <br />Inside the belly of the snake, clinging to the lifeline <br />with a thousand other weary Brooklynites, <br />the epiphany struck. The panhandler <br />had been referring to the title of Disc 3 <br />in a boxed set of 4 albums released by <br />‘The Doors.' in 1997. It was entitled- <br /> <br />‘The Future Ain't What It Used To Be.' <br /> <br />Ah, the streets of New York, each with <br />its own chameleon charm.<br /><br />Bert Bell<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-panhandler-2/
