Boston? I could sure use a Joe and Nemo Hotdog by Doug Holder

 *** Joe and Nemo was once a famed hotdog stand in Boston's Scollay Square...it closed in the 1960s. It was very popular with soldiers and sailors--(for a beer and a dog)-- during and after the great wars.

I could use one right now
don't hide the horseradish 
I am familiar with pain...
I want mine
rude and red
and I will be
well-fed.

I want to saunter
down Scollay Square...
Yes I know
the Old Howard
burlesque
burnt down
but for me
it is still the
toast of
the town.

I want to pop a beer
wipe the foam 
on my brow
to beat
this summer's
relentless heat.

I want to see the soldiers
those doughboys
and Ernie Pyle
huddled at
the counter
biting and bitching
mustard
dripping
deliciously
on the 
floor.

Doug Holder is the founder of the Ibbetson Street Press. He teaches writing at Endicott College in Beverly, MA. For over thirty years he ran poetry groups for psych patients at McLean Hospital, outside of Boston.