Small Towns Revisited

[edsiejka]

Small Towns Revisited


by Edmund Siejka


We Long Islanders
Live near a large City
Of
Tall buildings
High end stores
Apartments with gated windows
A place where people live like strangers.

Here, where we live
The land slopes downward
Towards Merrick Road
Inviting us for a walk
Along the way
It’s just like a neighbor
To call our name
We say hello
And exchange pleasantries
There is no need to say anymore.

Our families have roots here
Passing our local school
We recall that July
When fathers,
Tradesman
And office workers alike,
Volunteered
To help build a playground.

Wives worked nearby
To be home
When children
Stepped off school buses
Homes managed under their careful eye.

Near a park
Our sons and daughters played soccer
Families came to watch
Their children run like the wind
Memory tells me
It was a good season.

On nearby streets
We helped neighbors
With routine chores
Lifting and pushing the unmovable
Shiny things for a kitchen
Or something for the upstairs room
Odds and ends
We call possessions.

In return we are known here
And we take every opportunity
To walk through a quiet town
As early evening
Peacefully descends
On everyone and everything.

[dadio]

MY sort of poetry. Enjoyed.

[stilltrucking]

kind of bitter sweet for me
I can't go home again
Long Island was a barren desert for me, which was good for the locals I think, they did not want any truckers spending the night on the island, get your freight off and get the hell out of dodge was how it was. If you got laid over waiting for a load there was only one little mom and pop truck stop and any trucker who managed to find a parking spot thanked his lucky stars. Otherwise it was like being a flying dutchman trying to find a hiding place.

Sweet poem. It just sparked some old but vivid memories/images of your island.

please pardon the ramble.