Scribble on this wall.

by Mary Ann Samyn

These are the streets of Old Detroit. Here in my
hand, one perfect stick of rock candy. Welcome,
tourists, history buffs, charity cases! Good deeds
only go so far is what I think my mother meant
but didn’t say. False memory, according to the
talk shows, can mean it’s a toss up: who can you
trust? Some art, for instance, takes my breath
away. Some: nothing. Who among us will be
remembered? I’m betting on you, founder of a
great metropolis, darling, charmer, my one and
only hunch.

Mary Ann Samyn's most recent books include Beauty Breaks In (New Issues 2009) and The Boom of a Small Cannon  (Dancing Girl Press 2010). She teaches in the MFA program at West Virginia University.