downtown

by arnold schnabel

illustrations by rhoda penmarq

This somewhat disquieting sonnet first appeared in Arnold Schnabel's Philadelphia neighborhood weekly The Olney Times of April 27, 1963, not too long after his release from a three-month stay at the notorious Philadelphia State Mental Hospital at Byberry. The streets mentioned are in downtown Philadelphia, as was Leary's Book Store. -- Dan Leo, author of Arnold Schnabel: A Reader's Guide; Assistant Professor of Classics and Phys. Ed., Olney Community College. "Downtown" I don’t want to go downtown any more; I want never again to open that door. Chancellor Street, 13th Street, St. James Place: Cocktails and chatter; despair and disgrace. I wander through Leary's, fumbling through books, And then through the stamp store, happy as a child; At Horn & Hardart’s I avoid those idle looks, But somehow I still hear the call of the wild: It’s always just one beer, or one Manhattan, Or so I say, as I approach that certain pub; But once I sit down all else is forgotten, As though I’d been struck on the head with a club. I don’t want ever again to open that door; I don’t want to go downtown any more.