The Old Worthen by Richard Marion (litho print, ink drawing with watercolor, c. 1975, reprinted with permission of the artist).

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Old Worthen Christmas

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The good way Dan turned his head and dropped three nickels

into the bent tambourine of the Salvation Army-man

between sips of twenty-five-cent draft and bites of pretzel

at the Old Worthen in one of the high-backed booths

with his three friends who had stopped the cribbage game

when the deaf Frenchman in a blue-green overcoat

came to the table with eyes of a saint and handsome brown gloves

that held the jingling pan so our good Christmas will

would get us to push a few coins his ever-loving way.

–Paul Marion, 1975