The View from Pompey's Head

Kenny Calhoun

THE VIEW FROM POMPEY’S HEAD

1

The sad look on his sad worn face—
Matches the view out the window

From fifth floor of what’s called—
The Bank of America Building now

Kenny Calhoun the heir of the—
Grand Newman’s Department Store

Stylish and suave with its swanky—
Walkthrough display windows

Rivaling Pool’s & Bruckner’s—
With fashionable classy couture

Ensconced for years there on the—
Once busy thriving Commercial Street

Emporia the Athens of The Midwest—
Envy of all the surrounding ghost towns

But now it’s Emporia’s turn to turn—
Into the New Depression Rome

The view from Pompey’s head isn’t—
Very pretty or lucrative anymore

Dumpy storefronts, boarded-up—
Sixth Avenue slowly dying too

East and West, North and South—
Deader than the dead Santa Fe tracks

Emporia the Town that used to be—
Now just a Fly Over State tiny smudge

2

Home of Hostess Twinkies and—
Kitschy Creamy Darling Ding Dongs!!!

Another lovely Wal-Mart Village—
With acres of empty parking lots

Iowa Beef and Tyson Corporatism—
Plenty of jobs for illegals & Somali

Burning stench of Auschwitz stink—
“It’s the smell of money, baby!”

My generation’s Movers and Shakers—
Kenny Calhoun is retiring now

Phil Fleming is dead & long gone—
Gas & Oil Contessa Hawes smiles

Gary Ace the Dentist retiring—
How he hated me since Walnut

Steve Tremble the snide snotty—
Divorced lawyer and legislator

Who called me “Miss Kelly”—
At the Lyon County Fair, my dears

Bumbling Bloxom the Gargoyle—
Trashing Hispanics and women

Snarky Anita B. Rice opining—
About how appalled she was

Loretta Langley the Snivelly—
Wicked Witch of the East

Many of them still hanging around—
Since my mother’s old yearbooks

3

Poor faggy Jimmy Stevens—
Gay cheerleader & her pom-poms

Deader than a fucking doornail—
The gay Plague got him early

The dank Sunken Garden—
Next to ancient Norton Hall

With all those jars of babies—
Wide-eyed pickled embryos

There on the lovely KSTC—
Quaint little college campus

Vernon Sheffield giving recitals—
Chopin Preludes in Plumb Hall

The first gay pianist I ever—
Went to bed with way back then

The haunted gothic grim—
Welch Stadium built with blocks

Of Chase County limestone—
Like all the churches & bridges

Even the sidewalks old slabs of—
Limestone quarry seabed stone

Full of fossil shells like ancient—
Fencepost Easter Island Statues

4

Georgene Mechtley’s father—
The master stonemason builder

Him and his brothers building—
So many Emporia landmarks

The old Lyon County Courthouse—
Plumb Hall and many edifices

My county commissioner grandfather—
Wheeling & dealing crooked contracts

For all the roads & bridges around—
Playing poker, making shady deals

A photo of my GAR grandmother—
With a group of Civil War veterans

Standing outside the old Courthouse—
All dead now and everything’s gone

5

The view from Pompey’s head—
Through the fifth floor window

Kenny Calhoun looking down at—
The changing cityscape scenery

Bobbi Mlynar the town’s mayor—
And Emporia Gazette reporter

Interviewing retiring Calhoun—
A lovely Grant Wood couple

Right out of Gothic Americana—
It could very well be you or me

Meanwhile down on Commercial—
It’s like Edward Hopper deluxe

Stark Midwestern film noir—
The usual depressing emptiness

The good news is the Granada—
Restored classic Film Palace

Hollywood stunning Jewel—
Showpiece of cinematic culture

Plus the elegant Kenyon Hall—
Saved from the wrecking ball

The renovated Broadview Hotel—
Its bright red brick allure returned

An well as Neo-Classic Lowther—
And EHS a new Convention Hotel

Will Wonders never cease—
Can I have the Bloxom Bridal Suite?

6

Googling my way up & down—
The streets on my computer

Revisiting Peter Pan Park and—
The William Allen White mansion

Cruising the Rocky Ford Bridge—
Scene of “Murder Ordained” movie

Lorna Anderson killed her husband—
The Minister’s wife got done in too

Those Lutherans know how to—
Really do it so very nice & neat!!

You better watch out though—
Here comes killer Dick Hickock 

And gimpy ugly Perry Smith—
Shopping at Haines Hardware Store

For some nice rope and tape—
To slaughter the Clutters with

They’ll star in ”In Cold Blood”—
Later on at the Granada Theater

There’s a reason why Kansas—
Is called “The Fly Over State”

Because it’s not fucking safe—
Down there in deadly Kansas

Just ask the poor folks there—
In Holcomb or Garden City

Ask the slaughtered victims—
Like Reverend Bird’s dead wife

Truman Capote simply appalled—
It was as bad as New York City

7

The view from Pompey’s head—
Up there on the fifth floor

Looking down on the streets—
All of the decent Emporians 

The little Midwestern town—
Plopped down outta the sky

Like a shitty little crummy—
Cow Patty outta the Sky

To think I grew up there—
I was lucky to have escaped!