Johnsburg

At the top of the hill, a towering

Catholic church with Gothic spires,

below, a one-pump gas station,

a beauty parlor with a picture window,

at the town’s only four-way stop sign,

a convenience store with a bike stand,

and three smoke-drenched taverns,

their bars of the same solid wood

as the church’s hard benches,

only more polished, more worn down.