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New York
by Ronald A Pavellas
Manhattan: the hub of the universe
A small island which carries
The burden of innumerable massive structures
Lit by Times Square's bright lights
Darkened by the Bowery's overhanging elevateds
The foul smelling, damp, dark Bowery
Littered with tons of paper
Scattered by its millions of passersby
Where the homeless of the city congregate
To talk aimlessly of baseball and nothing
Manhattan: shamed by the East Side
With its century-old buildings
Dirty children swearing and smoking
Spitting and sweating in the terrible heat of summer
And the smell of stale garbage permeating all
Manhattan: proud of its buildings, tens of stories high
Proud of Central Park
Proud of City College
Proud of its harbor and business districts
Wall Street and Broadway
Manhattan: a conglomeration of millions of people
All nationalities, creeds and colors
The greatest swarm of humanity on Earth
Brooklyn: a unique spot in the universe
No other so loyal, so community spirited, gay, and drunk
No other so versatile
Beautiful parks and baseball diamonds in the wealthy districts
Slums with dirty streets smelling of burnt garbage
In the winter with the snow two feet high
In summer filled with children playing cards, rolling dice, hanging around
Adults swearing, drinking beer, talking heatedly about baseball
Smoking cigars and wearing undershirts with suspenders on their pants
Zoot-suiters strutting like peacocks, arguing about how to knot a tie
Ogling girls and mocking strangers
Schools, ancient and crowded
Teachers, decrepit and senile, young and brave
All fall before the onslaught of Brooklyn's children
New York's forgotten children 10/15/1952 Author's Note: For English V, Berkeley High School, 1952, at Age 15.
I had returned to California a year earlier after 5-1/2 years living in a slum of Brooklyn: 3rd Avenue and 48th Street. I went to PS 2. The Berkeley teacher never believed I actually wrote it. I was sort of a hoodlum-looking kid at that time -- all dark clothes, jeans around my butt and a greasy duck's-ass hairdo.
Posted on 12/13/2002
Copyright © 2026 Ronald A Pavellas
| Member Comments on this Poem |
| Posted by Lori I Wolfe on 12/16/02 at 08:48 PM A vision of reality ... Awesome read ... thanx for sharing it with us! PS: You must have been born with a pen in your hand ... (Born to write!) =-) |
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