To Walt Whitman

Dear Walt,
Your Long Island has changed.
The rolling Manhasset Hills running along the North Shore are now rivaled
in height by landfill mounds rising out of the South Shore marshes,
their summits obscured by sea gull clouds.
Gone are the potato farms, the land has been divided and subdivided
becoming tract homes, Levittowns, co-ops and condos.
Your leaves of grass are kept green by chemicals, bordered by fences,
trimmed prim and cut to village code.
Public parks preserve and protect nature with chain-link fences. (So the trees can’t escape.)
Meadows are country clubs, the woods are golf courses and pasture land
developed into shopping malls. (In Huntington one bears your name.)
Beaches are smaller, the sand has been eroded or carted away,
but they are still accessible for a price: residents pay less.
Water-ways overflow with pleasure boats and are sometimes colored green
or covered with oily rainbow slicks and aluminum cans.
You can almost walk across the water now, but, then again, You always could.
Cow paths are now parkways, and people are now cattle herded into railroad cars
bound for the city. (I wish I had a prod when I commute.)
Traffic that leisurely flowed across the East River by the Brooklyn Ferry is now jammed
and clogged on bridges and tunnels, while, at night electric street lamps light the roadways,
out-shining the stars.
Walt let’s face it Long Island is caught in the tentacles of the Megalopolis,
it has been filleted, the head chopped off and swallowed by the city.
The middle is life-less, over-indulged, bloated, and the tail wags as a playground for the rich.
The Paumanok is a dead fish.

 

 

Submited by

Friday, December 9, 2011 - 22:20

Poesia :

No votes yet

poetpete

poetpete's picture
Offline
Title: Membro
Last seen: 9 years 25 weeks ago
Joined: 05/03/2011
Posts:
Points: 936

Add comment

Login to post comments

other contents of poetpete

Topic Title Replies Views Last Postsort icon Language
Poesia/Poetrix The disconnect 0 5.103 01/16/2014 - 20:53 English
Poesia/Poetrix off to the tropics 0 3.730 01/16/2014 - 20:52 English
Poesia/Poetrix An Artistic Endeavour 0 5.353 01/16/2014 - 20:50 English
Poesia/Poetrix Independence Day 0 3.713 05/22/2013 - 14:50 English
Poesia/Poetrix Living in the war zone 0 6.187 05/21/2013 - 13:14 English
Poesia/Poetrix Kitty Cushion 0 4.165 05/08/2013 - 12:39 English
Poesia/Poetrix prelude 0 5.162 05/08/2013 - 12:37 English
Poesia/Poetrix Herding A Migrating Mob of Lemmings 0 4.954 05/08/2013 - 12:34 English
Poesia/Poetrix Spring is near 0 5.209 05/07/2013 - 18:35 English
Poesia/Poetrix Bikes 0 4.713 05/07/2013 - 18:24 English
Poesia/Poetrix Guns R' US 0 4.595 05/07/2013 - 18:22 English
Poesia/Poetrix Recurring Nightmare 0 4.403 05/07/2013 - 04:41 English
Poesia/Poetrix The American Celebrity 0 5.739 05/07/2013 - 04:38 English
Poesia/Poetrix Integrals Of An Irrational Function 0 4.683 05/07/2013 - 04:37 English
Poesia/Poetrix October's End 0 4.170 11/16/2012 - 01:26 English
Poesia/Poetrix Occupy Wall Street 0 4.610 09/25/2012 - 18:39 English
Poesia/Poetrix Lost Poem 0 4.497 07/26/2012 - 13:41 English
Poesia/Poetrix Banished 0 5.230 07/26/2012 - 13:41 English
Poesia/Poetrix OPAL 0 3.724 07/23/2012 - 16:16 English
Poesia/Poetrix On Pens and Needles 0 4.181 07/01/2012 - 15:15 English
Poesia/Poetrix The Gate 0 4.855 06/16/2012 - 16:41 English
Poesia/Poetrix Do not feed the beast 0 4.350 06/15/2012 - 18:18 English
Poesia/Poetrix The Ho-Hum 0 4.713 06/15/2012 - 18:16 English
Poesia/Poetrix Hello Kitty 0 4.482 04/27/2012 - 15:43 English
Poesia/Poetrix Buy Partisan (a disconnected dichotomy) 0 4.735 04/24/2012 - 19:38 English