Apartment 4-C is missing
The girl in 4-B has never heard
Anyone pounding on the wall
When she’s playing her disco
Station, has never detected
The smell of boiling cabbage or
Reheated Thai food, has not
Been awakened at 4 AM by someone
Sneaking out with her pumps
In her hand or shambling off
To some horrible shift at Con Ed. The

Old couple in 4-D remember a TV
Set on the other side of the
Bedroom wall, people laughing
At some joke they couldn’t hear
Some joke in black-and-white
Somebody wearing a wide tie and
A bad toupee, they are almost
Certain. It was a long ways back
But apartment 4-C was definitely
Not missing then, and the people
In there made popcorn all the time.

The guy in 5-C dropped a bowling
Ball the night after the girl in
4-B told him apartment 4-C was
Missing, slipped a note under the door
Of 4-C that said i banged yr grlfrnd
& then a couple days later another
One that said just messin wth u, dude
Looked through the key hole but
There was a metal plate screwed over
It, or anyway he couldn’t see anything,
He decided yeah, 4-C is in the wind.

The crazy lady in 3-C says sometimes
Apartment 4-C is overhead, but
Other times it is underneath, where
2-C is supposed to be. Once the doors
Of the N train opened up & instead
Of the Union Square station it was
Apartment 4-C. It’s possible although
She won’t swear to it that one
Night she woke up to use the bathroom
& she was in apartment 4-C, but she
Was in her own bed when she got up

In the morning. What was apartment 4-C
Like? asked the girl in 4-B. O honey
Said the crazy lady, don’t get me
Started, I shiver just thinking
About it, just be glad the
Goddamn place is missing.