Underberg from Gabriel Kahane by Gabriel Kahane

Underberg has fallen down.
They’ve carted the last brick out to a junkyard town.
She put her head on my shoulder
Sighed a sob that said we’re older
And Underberg has fallen down.

Brick by brick and stone by stone they razed.
And ghosts of teenage love and lust escaped
Soon it’ll be but a hole
Off a sidewalk way too wide
We watched Underberg drown
And it drowned til it died.

On the day of the demolition
I showed up at her place half past nine
With cardboard cups full of coffee in tears
And the foreman began to eulogize
A building is never so lonely
As when it hits the ground
And Underberg has fallen down.

In high school we would steal inside at night.
And make out by the glow of a traffic light
When we tired of touching she would
Turn to me and say:
You know they’ll tear down this building
some bitter, some bitter black day.

I want to watch them tear down that building with you Then watch them watch you tear me down too.

The first time I saw her was nineteen ninety-three
Some punk rock shirt and acid-washed jeans
Standing front of a building
With a sign of hand-painted words:
Kitchen Supplies by Samuel Underberg

And Underberg has fallen down.

• Acoustic
• Alternative
• Folk
• classical
• Portland