The Old Cinema Palace

It was a flea market for a time:
costume jewelry starring
Steve McQueen and Ali MacGraw.
A little theater group took over,
Neil Simon with a tattered screen backdrop
and fifteen rows of gum-encrusted seats.
A developer looked around, shook his head.
Hadn't the heart to convert his first date
into office space.
It was vacant for ten years.
Some people still brought it back to life,
in their heads and via occasional conversation.
Kids pressed their faces against its glass doors,
saw nothing but half a concession stand
and shreds of a poster for "Godfather II".
They had no idea what they were seeing.
It leaked. It ran with rats.
Gilt peeled. A homeless man moved in,
Two red velvet balconies
were boarded up, declared unsafe.
So much can kill the past:
cheap glitter, bad acting, uselessness,
ignorance, the rot of time -
the list is long.
If they've not hit your yesterdays yet,
they're a coming attraction.