SOUNDING OFF:Requiem for Third Street cottages

We will remember a night in December

when the last council vote came down —

destruction of a legacy would benefit the town.

But still we fought for Third Street, in earnest everyone,

three council members sat unmoved, the deal already done.

We need a senior center,

it has been so long;

besides we know as we will show what side the money’s on.

Those with some investment

stood in strong support,

with indignation simmering, this was their retort:

“To hell with all the cottages,”

one local man decried,

(his name and family history were far more bonafide.)

“I’m tired of the hall at Legion Street,” one old darling said.

“It’s old and cold and I prefer

to build anew instead.

“It’s too late for historic houses when I could soon be dead.”

The cost involved had been resolved, one councilwoman

offered in commending this new space:

Fifteen mil from the taxpayer’s till has to go someplace —

and architectural history is so easy to erase.

So when you walk down Third Street

and remember what was there, with the ghosts of our

remembrances still lingering

in the still night air —

this place on Earth so noted

for its beauty and its art won’t soon

forget old cottages that once defined its heart.