untoasted

national poetry writing month 2025, day 11

we were walking down hudson street,
i was excited to take you to the bagel shop i used to frequent in middle school.

i didn’t bother to look it up,
at that point, middle school was only ten years ago,
at this point it’s been twenty,
i’d look it up today.

we were almost there,
i promised these were the best bagels
in manhattan
but instead of an everything with a schmear of scallion,
toasted,
we were greeted with a wells fargo.

”i should’ve looked it up,” i said,
and so i rerouted us to 6th to go to murray’s instead.
again, i didn’t look it up but thankfully
the murray’s was still there.

a lesson of coming back to a place,
not to take a place for granted,
what was once there may no longer be there,
some have gone, and some remain.

“i really wanted a toasted bagel,” i said
as i bit into my everything with a schmear of scallion,
untoasted.