Show Me the Place, 22

“Show me the place.”

Duke Senior in As You Like It (2.1)

22: Ravenna Rd.; Twinsburg, Ohio; 1966–67

My first apartment—on my own—

In Twinsburg, 1966.

I hardly felt that I was grown—

I had no friends, no foes, no cliques.

It stood there on Ravenna Road—

With two apartments—older place.

But, still, it was my first abode.

Bare furniture—that’s no disgrace?

To my first job—a five-mile drive.

I was a teacher—sore afraid

That I perhaps would not survive—

Would I succeed? And make the grade?

(The place is gone—yes, razed and gone.

I’m not sure when that act occurred.

The decades just flow on and on—
Like some faint, disappearing word.

No picture—see final stanza.