Beau Petit Salon

By John I. Blair

Nothing special
This neighborhood:
Block after slightly ragged block
Of second-string apartments,
Ranch houses that never knew
A horse or cow,
Mundane strips of shops,
Offices, a carwash.

But here along the street
A fussed-up filling station,
Flush with ambition, fresh paint
And entrepreneurial attitude,
Hosts the Beau Petit Salon --
Bastion, I’m forced to think
Of French fashion, Parisian taste;
A Gallic gesture on Gina Drive.

At first I am inclined to laugh,
To ask, how silly can it get?
But then my kinder self responds:
How wonderful a human mind
Can look at aging bricks and rust,
Yet see a chance for elegance
Where, blinded by a homely face,
We might find nothing special.

©2009 John I. Blair