"Hello Mary, this is Macy's..."

Excerpt from [in memory of mary sendek] by Matthew Kremer:

waiting for the light
to cross queens boulevard
holding my onions
i remembered i was standing
near the site of the old
mary sendek house.
as the story goes
it was a modest parcel
owned by a hungarian lady
who refused to sell to macy's
back when the mall site
was first being planned.
from what i've read
she became rather infamous
in her prolonged refusal
to meet their demands.
her house transitioned
into a landmark of sorts
for the locals--one you'd
gawk at each time you passed
on foot or in the family car.
even as the boulevard
hardened into ten lanes
mrs. sendek stuck to her guns.
she was offered what seems
a decent relocation sum
but to no avail.
this lasted for decades.
you can see pictures of her
in Life magazine hanging
her laundry as the strange
UFO-like structure of the mall
looms ominously in the background.
what's best of all
is that she never really
gave a rationale for the act--
no agenda, no grandstanding,
just a person who didn't
feel like leaving.
a modern day bartleby.