Searching old poetry files, found this. Does anybody else out there miss the Greek Cuisina?
Portland, Oregon
landmark
Housed a favorite
Greek Restaurant
Declared by the city
“condemned”
For a couple years
the owner fought the edict,
but was finally overcome
Upon vacating the
vintage building, there
Was concern about the
huge purple octopus
Who had greeted the
public for many years
Where would he go,
this gigantic sea creature
Who lived on 4th
Avenue, impervious to
The elements for so
long?
My friends and I
referred to him as Oscar
Just because we felt
the need to name things
We weren’t really
that intimate with the
Purple octopus, it
was simply our way of
Showing off to our
out-of-town friends
Who we loved to take
to Oscar’s
Especially on Sunday
nights when
The Greek music
played and we danced
And helped break the
white china plates
Also, there was that
fateful night when we
Drank Ouzo for the
first time and the rest
Is truly a blur…I
vaguely remember close
Dancing with a
stranger who took liberties
With me and I was
laughing too hard to
Block his Roman
hands!
And the pastries, Oh
the pastries! Rich and tasty
Little works of art
partnered perfectly with the
Thick, sweet Greek
coffee
We friends capped
many an evening with that
Sweet good-bye before
we crossed the river
The last I heard on the
nightly news, of course,
Oscar was to be
auctioned on E-Bay
Kind of lost track of
him after that, but occasionally
On a blowsy, rainy
night I reflect on us running
Into that building,
looking up at his big purple
Arms & legs flapping
in the wind…wherever he is, I am
Sure Oscar is still
making people smile…
RMK, Spring 2012
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