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8/9/2019 representin: poems of brooklyn, my homeland, with footnotes
1/22
8/9/2019 representin: poems of brooklyn, my homeland, with footnotes
2/22
Seltzer
When I uncapped the bottle,
A comet shower
Of bubbles
Whooshed by,
Muscling water asideThen splashing into the wall
Of air
Atop the pool.
8/9/2019 representin: poems of brooklyn, my homeland, with footnotes
3/22
MOMA City Scape
The white mug flew
Off the table
And fell
Into the heavenly
Flecks of the floor,
Sharding the sky
With fragmented flowers,
Orb-shell splinters,
And modern sculptures.
8/9/2019 representin: poems of brooklyn, my homeland, with footnotes
4/22
Traffic Light
He sucked on a candy bulb
Then set it in the ring
Of his pursed lips,
Where it glowed green,
Signaling that it was OKTo go.
8/9/2019 representin: poems of brooklyn, my homeland, with footnotes
5/22
Futurism
Lets find a field,
Lets find a field
As yellow as
A YIELD sign,
And watch stars wink,
Watch planets blink
As constantly as
DONT WALK signs;
Then harness beetles,
Ride on beetles
As glossy as
Red Mustangs
Across the forests
To find the river
Whose pitch is likeA sparrows twang.
Then after a jaunt,
Head back to the city
That teems like
A silver mead
To climb the spires,
Scale the spires
Pointed like
Whittled reeds;
Then board a train car
And ride in that car
Like writhing along
In a snake
Out of the city
And into a garden,
To finally stop
By a lake.
8/9/2019 representin: poems of brooklyn, my homeland, with footnotes
6/22
Bus Ride Daydream
A Mack trailer, red and glossy, turned onto Glenwood Road.
I was in a bus, looking at it, almost head-on:
It plowed by, squeezing between the bus and the opposite cars.
Once past, it diminished and the roar faded,
But, as it was passing, I saw it as a huge shipRocking slightly- a cradle on the buoyant water
Of a tight channel.
It passed me flaunting its red, starboard side.
I felt as if I was on a log built dock,
Where log built houses sat meters away
From the clear channel;
As if a floating wooden town,
Supported by spongy trunks,
Was dipped into a stormless bay.
Then I saw the truck as a canoe,
Embroidered with suede designsAnd encrusted with precious stones.
The canoe glided along, stretching out to full length
Once beside me
Tipping gently in its unerring tubular path.
It passed and the surface waters
Split behind it like an ever-opening rose,
While winds popped the waters with clubs.
8/9/2019 representin: poems of brooklyn, my homeland, with footnotes
7/22
Colorful Christmas
Glowing snowflakes of red, green and white,
Falling in breezes and crisp air tonight,
From gold and purple fluorescent clouds,
Like nebulous, cotton shrouds,
While crimson embers in sparkling firesFizzle out in the suns desires
8/9/2019 representin: poems of brooklyn, my homeland, with footnotes
8/22
The Inspiration of the Trees
The trees bloomed in such a
Gloomy gale
That I wondered if,
Beneath the bark,
The trunks glowedPastel green.
8/9/2019 representin: poems of brooklyn, my homeland, with footnotes
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Summer Storm
Keno Machines above,
Blow around the numbered balls
For the lottery-hail
Soon to be drawn.
8/9/2019 representin: poems of brooklyn, my homeland, with footnotes
10/22
Trees
The oak seemed taller than the maple-
They usually are.
Whereas maples touch the clouds,
Oaks touch the stars.
8/9/2019 representin: poems of brooklyn, my homeland, with footnotes
11/22
Daydreams
Never is a truer fancy wrought
Then when alone I lose myself in thought;
With pen in hand, only sad I be;
In classrooms cramped, never am I free;
My body shifts and, face it, hards and softs,As if the fancy in my head took me aloft,
And over woods and towns my body flew,
All my friends to me were in a zoo;
They couldn't see or catch my blatant stares,
Or see me sing my ballads, humming theirs'.
No they couldn't, and free from them I'd be,
As free as if I sailed on the sea,
And the waves were calm but the wind sent me my way,
And Marnie left me for a single day.
8/9/2019 representin: poems of brooklyn, my homeland, with footnotes
12/22
Home
Though my landscapes and characters be far flung,
Remove the scenery, props and costumes,
And what you see is my living room,
My mother and my father,
My whole house, the block I live on,All quietly there; some reading magazines,
Others mildly shocked at the unfolding of the scene.
8/9/2019 representin: poems of brooklyn, my homeland, with footnotes
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8/9/2019 representin: poems of brooklyn, my homeland, with footnotes
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Evening Chores
I'm so poor and happy;
He's not happy, just dreaming;
Breathes deep before he settles the garbage,
Whistles song, considers the night, the neighbors
The garbage;Eyes glancing,
Yet there were nobles whose eyes glanced about
As if they were murderers.
8/9/2019 representin: poems of brooklyn, my homeland, with footnotes
15/22
My Street
The trees line the street like masts;
The sky plainly elucidates the beauty of
Every texture;
The sky admires the cars, the street's face,
The hairs on every head, lawns-The wind lightly chills all of it
Like vanilla ice cream to the touch.
The lawns are cool like my cool damp cheeks.
Give to others the south, the jungle, Greece,
India, the Sahara;
Give to me my city block and its coverings.
8/9/2019 representin: poems of brooklyn, my homeland, with footnotes
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The Gateway National Recreation Area Salt Marsh Ecosystem [or Marine Park,
Fancifully]
The earth rides slowly. The channel runs off into the marsh,
Below the shaking herons, before settling into a rocky back wash.
Three egrets noodle about the shallows, looping
Their beaks through a thin film of pondwater before piercingThe sand and fiddling their tongues for krill.
A silver sunset fails to dampen the cardinal's displeasure,
Powering it up to a shrill wattage and inviting weasels
Out like earthworms after rain,
But in search of eggs and prey.
While, fluttering about the fringes, the mantids scratch the ferny
Crisps and serpents wiggle into their sodden posts, as if a large colony
Of ant legs suggests an endless lightness,
But the delicate veil is only betrayed by its transience.
The jays eat the air as they dive along a dipping inverted arch,Like a spoon grabs up ice cream in a sweeping bow shape, such
Threatening, pendulous gestures drive the martens
Back inside their maple homes,
Wiser now, to wait till dawn.
A floating gust, reeking of icy mountaintops from far away,
Appears over the nearest hill then spills itself into the space
Electrified by yellow cottonwood and damselflies,
Hopeless ticks and washed out pigments, shutters
Only opening in reflex to the dimming sky,
Made further dark by clouds with rudders
And cherry pies.
8/9/2019 representin: poems of brooklyn, my homeland, with footnotes
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Brooklyn 1970s
Curtains, dirty, dusty;
Schoolyards, filthy;
Traffic jams, always;
Wild dogs on the roadside, dead;
Verrezano spans away like a bridge to heaven's gateOr a very large tendon;
Stores line the roads
Like many beads
On many necklaces.
8/9/2019 representin: poems of brooklyn, my homeland, with footnotes
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8/9/2019 representin: poems of brooklyn, my homeland, with footnotes
19/22
Parking Lots
They are not the same, though they stare off into the
Same rain and snow, and slowly go their cars,
Dusted with snow, which crisp fingers brush away
As hard, numbed fingers clink the key into the slot;
Then all the fingers rest for a momentIn the foggy warmth; the old engine warms a little
Longer, but soon hurls over the rainbow arc
Highway, over lodes, termites and moles,
And a flattened roll that is top spun
To oblivion by Michelin tires on the run.
8/9/2019 representin: poems of brooklyn, my homeland, with footnotes
20/22
Alien Invasion
A fat guy and pillow-stuffed stud
Must look for a bomb planted
To blow the city up.
A flying go cart they need,And the Empire State Lance,
To smote at a rushing spaceship
Faster than a glance.
8/9/2019 representin: poems of brooklyn, my homeland, with footnotes
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8/9/2019 representin: poems of brooklyn, my homeland, with footnotes
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NOTES AND ASIDES
(A) Seltzer: Fizzy Brooklyn hardcore prelude.
(1) MOMA City Scape: Scoping in on Brooklyn, breezing by Manhattan to do so,
gliding over the city like a vast, formless ghost; there is my lost homeland!
Please welcome me back.(2) Traffic Light: Even vast flying carpet-like entities afloat in space must
wait for the light.
(3) Futurism: Traffic signs, sparrows, gulls, spires, salt marsh; now we're
in the thick of my beloved city.
(4) Bus Ride Daydream: There was a lot of dreaming. People wrongly associate
blue collar neighborhoods with lack of fanciful imaginings. There was plenty.
(5) Colorful Christmas: There was an unspoken (unless you count a local
association's award as spoken) competition among many homeowners to most
garishly decorate their houses for the holidays. The results were excessive
and splendid.
(6) The Inspiration of the Trees: Brooklyn was not a barren wasteland, devoid
of the arboreal or the floral. Not at all. In fact, there was a tree in front
of almost every house in my hood. I spent many hours just staring up at thetrees. Un-full-lots-little-madness.
(7) Summer Storm: All those crazy lottery drawings, with their gumball
machines and wind turbulence, coalesced this one.
(8) Trees: Red oaks and sycamore maples lined my block. Black cherry,
starlet, sedge and spruce.
(9) Daydreams: More daydreaming; this time, in school.
(10) Home: More dusty than you might think.
(11) Evening Chores: The stars watched.
(12) My Street: Cars and trees and cool fall weather in Brooklyn.
(13) The Gateway National Recreation Area Salt Marsh Ecosystem: The Creek, as
it's called locally.
(14) Brooklyn 1970s: Flattering and pitiless. A snapshot like the sun.
(15) Parking Lot: Somewhere in Brighton Beach.
(16) Alien Invasion: Sci-Fi meets Brooklyn and Manhattan. They are searching
for the flying go cart in Brooklyn, a likely locale for such whittled
ingenuities in the 1970s.
Although I am 7 years removed from Brooklyn, my heart and senses never
forget.
Tears bleed off of me even thinking of my block and my house, my
neighborhood, everything, especially my mom.
I love you and miss you so much, mom.
We will be together again soon, dad, all of us.
Photo credits (all public domain, courtesy of the NYPL):
Cover: Unknown
Next one: Detroit Photographic Co.
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