This is Where I Come From

I come from thunder and lightening,

from the silence at the edge of dawn

from the moaning lovers’ embrace

and the fear deep in their hearts.

I come from the heartbeat of city nights

and the low call of tug boats

easing liners into the harbor.

I come from the click of

high heels on marble

floors,

and the vacant eyes of the

vagrant huddled

homeless

in the doorway.

I come from fragrant 5 a.m. bakeries

and stale 2 a.m. beer joints.

I come from the dairy restaurant with its

white fish and white foods.

And I come from the sharp

smell wafting from barrels of

pickles, olives, roasted red peppers.

I come from pushcarts filling

Sunday morning in Soho,

Saturday morning in Union Square,

Chelsea.

I come from rushing traffic

and taxi drivers, tired and rude,

interested and caring;

from lost tourists wandering

Times Square wondering

why they left home.

I come from tall buildings

graceful and old facing

The Park;

decaying from disinterest

in Harlem, Queens, under 11^th Avenue;

gentrifying in the East Village,

Morningside Heights.

I come from the purposeful moving

fast through day upon day.

And I come from the dreamer

idling in the park.

I come from a place presided over

by a Lady

gifted to this city

from a sister city

in

Love.

Where once

wave upon

wave

of immigrants flocked.

The Lady holds high

her light

so those in need

can find

their

way.

This poem appeared last evening as an offering to the city of my birth, New York.  It is a romantic view of the child deeply in love with The City that was. It is also seen through the eyes of one who fled to the country to raise her own children and make her home and who has not visited her birth city in a very long time.

What was once an emblem of welcome that shone out for all to see, our Lady Liberty, has become a lie to the now countless children being held in camps, waiting for the opportunity to come to a land that had once thought of itself as a ‘place of opportunity for all’.

With a heavy heart I now say, “This dream has become a mockery.  As a people we came to believe our public face, never taking care to align our public face with our actions.”

The time for change, on oh so many fronts, is NOW.