Grand Opening

It isn't so much hope behind these doors 
as work to do. And so the working goes 
on at 4 AM. He mops the floors, 
he gets the coffee ready. What he knows 
he doesn't think about. His arc is set, 
as those who tried before him ought to tell. 
And yet, if asked, he may seem to forget, 
or shrug. For, if it once had been a bell 
to service, or, once, a flag staked out in war, 
that was the thing upon which all relied, 
it is a thing like that to own a store 
and diner, in a village, alongside 
a winter crossing. He reaches for the light. 
He sets his OPEN sign against the night.