ALEXANDER'S

 ALEXANDER'S

Alexander's is long gone

Replaced by a mall

With stores

Like Marshall's and now Ikea

Alexander's had three floors

Covering a huge city block

Many times leaving my elementary school

Which was nearby

Instead of going home by myself

Watching television and eating red apples

Until my parents came home

I would wander around for hours in Alexander's

Once in a while they would try to 

Chase me out 

But it was easy escaping by taking

An escalator and going to the next floor

My favorite floor was the second

Because there you could find the toys

And the record department

Where you could spend your time

Looking over the covers of the LP's

Next to the record  department

Was the camera department

I bought my first camera there

The Kodak X-15 which I think cost

Twenty-five dollars

I still have many of the pictures taken by that camera

Strangely years later

Looking through my closet

I found another box with another 

Kodak X-15 camera inside

But I only remember buying one camera

The camera somehow spawned and 

Who was I to complain

Alexander's was the type of store

Where workers made careers 

For what they expected to be a lifetime

Although it maintained an

Illusion of permanence 

Even back then waiting on the 

Long lines with the slow cash registers

 You could sense something was going to

Have to change

No one imagined Alexander's would  actually close

The only thing left now

Is the facade of white bricks

A wailing wall  of sorts for some of

The old timers ofRego Park