By Carol Smith

Yonder stands a grand old lady
Nobel, though in sad distress
Scorched and vacant are her gardens
Pitiful her ragged dress

Once she was a regal creature
At whose table we all dined
Dressed in lace and candelabras
Welcoming, yet so refined

But now jilted by a lover
Whose devotion did not last
The fickle arm of indecision
To limbo, has her future cast

Without help, I fear her beauty
Will be doomed to lie instead
Neath some condo wrongly touted
As the “improved” Alki Homestead!