MAGNOLIA
Taking an evening stroll
Through Forest Hills Gardens
I came across a huge white flower
Blooming from a tree
Which seemed out of place
As it was the only one of its kind
I recognized it as a magnolia
As my sister who lives
In a small town in southern Virginia
Has one in her front yard
There it is common
Although lonely here
The Magnolia tree appeared healthy
Adding a distinctive charm
To the otherwise ordinary side street
SKELETON
Why there is skeleton attached
To a building in Fort Totten
The former military base
Now turned into a park
In Bay Terrace
I never found out
But it's a good place
To get some fresh air
With some nice views to boot
Nobody really likes a parking meter
But seeing the remaining few
Along Queens Boulevard
Vandalized
Out of service
Waiting to be removed
Didn't change my mind
Good riddance!
PIGEON SIGN
The sign in the small park
On Queens Boulevard reads:
"DO NOT FEED THE PIGEONS"
In other words:
LET THE PIGEONS STARVE!
BALANCE
The cup on top
Of the fire hydrant
On Austin Street
Is a nice reminder
That the key to life
Is finding the right balance
FREE ICE CREAM
Who can resist free ice cream?
You'd think the line would be
Blocks long
Surprisingly the orthodontist
Who sponsored the giveaway
On the corner of Bell Blvd and 39th Ave
In Bayside
Was having a tough time
Drumming up business
I'm sure in the right place
At the right time
The ice cream truck would be swarmed
And tempers easily flared
Too much of a good thing
Or not enough?
TWA HOTEL
As I rushed into the old TWA terminal
Turned into a hotel in 2019 with over
Five hundred rooms and a rooftop infinity pool
In JFK airport (formerly Idlewild)
I felt I was living in a time warp
Somewhere in the 1960's
(The main building was designed
By architect Eero Saarinen in 1962)
But I was worrying about
How long I could keep
My car in the lot
Thinking I would take a quick peek inside
I had not used a valet to park
So while I looked around
Saw the vintage uniforms displayed up close
And could see a 1950's
Lockheed Constellation (Connie)
L-1649 Starliner airplane
Through the large window
Appreciated how they meticulously
Brought back many original details
Such as the ceramic floor tiles
Red carpets in the hallways
And rotary pay phones (10cents a call)
I also noticed my car was
Facing the wrong way
I had parked forward first
Instead of in reverse
The valets would spot it right away
I decided I had seen enough
Would return another time
(Maybe stay as a guest )
So I ran out of the terminal/hotel
Backed up my car carefully
And quickly headed to the exit
BEACH ART?
Taking a break from a picnic
In a park in Howard Beach
I went for a walk
Following a trail I ended up
In a small beach facing Jamaica Bay
Where I found a log wrapped in fabric
An art installation work inspired by
Christo and Jeanne-Claude?
Most likely not
I also saw a piece of lemon
A bag of potato chips
A bottle of laundry detergent cut in half
Plastic rings and other assorted goodies
Heading back to the picnic area
A woman passing by said:
"If everybody keep it clean then it will be good"
Then it started to rain
FREE MEAL
During the height of the pandemic
It's easy to understand why those
Who could leave did
But others chose to stay
Daring to walk through the ambulances
Surrounding the hospitals
Into the main entrance
Ready to fulfill their duty
At seven every night
Those who remained in the city
Would stand by their
Windows and terraces
Banging pots
Making noises
Thanking those who kept doing
What was necessary
Whether delivering food
Or answering an emergency call
Now as the pandemic seems
To be receding
As the memory of their valor
Becomes fainter
A free meal
Offered by a restaurant
In Forest Hills to the
First responders and
Healthcare workers
Is a nice way to make sure
No one forgets those
Who stood up
When they were needed
JUST CORN
The only time I eat corn
Is at street fairs
Like the one today in Austin Street
Lightly toasted
Without anything else
Just corn
ICES
My wife and I walked down 108th Street
To the Lemon Ice King of Corona
Which has been around since 1944
It offers so many flavors of ices
(You are not allowed to mix)
Making it hard to decide
Which is the one that speaks to you
I started with a medium pistachio
My wife chose the same
While the vivid green color
Might make some hesitate
Not us
The real pieces of pistachios
Found in the ice
The cool and sweet treat on the hot day
Was just right
We sat on a bench
On Corona Avenue people watching
After I finished the pistachio ice
I wanted more
My wife didn't
On the way home
I ordered again
This time I went for
A small rum raisin
YELLOW WATERMELON
On the metal table next to the truck
Full of whole watermelons
Parked on 108th Street
Were a variety of watermelons
Cut into quarters and halves
Several of the pieces displayed
Captured my imagination
Because of their unusual color
Turns out the first watermelons
Grown in Africa over 5000 years ago
Were actually yellow
Over the years through
Selective cross-breeding
And an increased level of lycopene
A plant nutrient which gives
Fruits and vegetables their red hue
Watermelons gradually became
The pinkish-red we all know well
Yellow watermelons however
Have a healthy dose of
Vitamins A and C
And what they lack in the antioxidant
Benefits of lycopene
They make up in beta carotene
For fifteen dollars
My wife and I bought an entire one
Which the man selling them
Cut in half for us
It didn't last long in the fridge
The golden watermelon was sweet and delicious
On a hot humid day
Everything you could ask for
The sign in Rocket Park in Flushing Meadows
Warns you that it's a real Atlas rocket
In fact it's an intercontinental missile
The USA needed something fast to get
A human into orbit to compete with
The USSR during the Cold War Space Race
A year earlier April 12, 1961
(International Day of Human Space Flight)
Soviet Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin
Had become the first human to enter space
And orbit the Earth
Since the payload was small for the
This particular intercontinental missile
The capsule put on top didn't leave much
Extra room for John Glenn who was chosen
For the mission to become
The first American to orbit the Earth
On February 20, 1962
The 260,000 pound Mercury-Atlas D rocket
Fueled by kerosene and liquid oxygen
Took off sending Glenn
In his cramped Friendship 7 capsule
(Rocket Park has an exact-size replica)
Into space for 4 hours and 55 minutes
Where he circled the globe three times
An important step towards the United States
Landing on the moon in 1969
ENGINE
The gate to Rocket Park
In Flushing Meadows
Was open so I went in
A worker was busy hosing down the place
I thought he was going to tell me to leave
He didn't
So I got to take in the
Saturn V F-1 engine without rushing
It took five of these gigantic engines
Two and a half minutes
And seven and a half million pounds
Of thrust
(Go baby, go!)
To lift the Saturn V rocket
All thirty-six storeys
Off the ground
During the first stage
Of the Apollo flight
To the moon
No other engine ever built
Is as powerful
Or as earth-shattering
LITTLE FREE LIBRARY
Good things come in small packages
And nothing is better than a little box
Filled with all kinds of books
A little box with no lock
That you can easily open
Take one or two books that you like
Without having to fill out anything
Not requiring a card
Based simply on trust
Read and return
Repeat
Possibly bring a book of your own
To share
Brilliant
STYROFOAM
Styrofoam has been around since
The 1800's
Well not exactly
Something similar
EPS
Expanded Polysterene Foam
Was first discovered in Berlin in 1839
In 1946 the Dow Chemical Company
Played around and came up with
Extruded Polysterene Foam
aka Styrofoam
Strong
Light
Buoyant
Moisture resistant
Hailed as a wonder product
Used for such things as
Protective packaging and surfboards
(Dawn patrol, dude?)
And then came concerns about
Its impact on the environment
Styrofoam doesn't biodegrade
Becomes toxic food for marine life
Meaning if we eat fish we are all
Ingesting Styrofoam in some form
(Hold the grouper!)
There are companies that can recycle Styrofoam
But because it's so light
98 percent air
It becomes a question of economics
Less than 2 percent is recycled
In New York City Styrofoam is banned
For single use items such as cups plates and trays
And for peanuts in containers
Technology might one day
Provide a solution to degrade plastics
(Mealworms, anyone?)
For now the real answer is about our own practices
Anything single use is not efficient
So whatever we can do
To reduce our complicity
Is a step forward
NEW DEAL
When I arrived in the Woodhaven Station post office
Around noon on a Saturday
It was very crowded
Many people were waiting to complete
Their passport applications
On my right covering the top part
Of the wall was a mural by Ben Shahn
Titled "The First Amendment" (1941)
It was funded by the treasury department
As part of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal
Providing work for unemployed artists
Here was art presenting itself to a public
Many too busy to have time to visit a museum
So while waiting to complete their passport applications
Or simply there to buy stamps
They could if they so wished
Admire artwork inspired
By the great Mexican muralists
Empowering the ordinary worker
With grace and dignity
And enshrining their right
To be free
1 HOUR PHOTO
Time is relative so they say
Back when the store on Jamaica Avenue
Put up the yellow awning announcing
1 hour for your photos or better yet 45 minutes
Would've seemed like a miracle
Previously you'd drop off
The roll of film and wait up to a week
To see what you had
Actually many times when you picked up the
Pictures you didn't quite know what you'd find
Because you probably kept the roll in the camera
For a while before shooting all 24 or 36 exposures
Film wasn't cheap and neither
Was the developing
So you didn't just snap away
At anything that captured your fancy
You thought about each of the pictures you took
And then after you finished the roll
You might keep it around
Until you had a few rolls before you finally
Went to have them developed
Waiting all that time
Sometimes built excitement as
To what you'd get
You prayed you didn't waste your
Ten or fifteen dollars on nonsense
When you actually saw the pictures
Most of them were usually awful
But somehow if your were lucky
You might discover one or two
That truly were better than you remembered
And then it would all be worth it
What is it they say
All things come to those who wait
Now an hour for a photo seems
Like a lifetime
We've lost the adventure
The anticipation
The surprise
A small price to pay perhaps
For instant gratification
HOPSCOTCH
Nowadays we can't imagine hopscotch
A popular playground game
For evidently thousands of years
(Even Roman kids played a form of it)
To be a reason for great concern
Googling hopscotch however
I was surprised to learn
It was one of the games
Not allowed by the Buddha
As it was a "cause for negligence"
Which says the more things change
The more they stay the same
We look at kids today
Playing video games
And we think
So many hours in front of a screen
Isn't a good thing
But I'm sure in the future
They'll look back at kids playing
Video games as something utterly benign
Compared to the AI games
Totally immersing the player
Where reality blends with fantasy
Or vice versa
Nobody able to distinguish
What's a game and what's not
Certainly they will be a "cause for negligence"
At least for a while
FURNITURE
Arriving in Lefrak City from Gibraltar
Where we lived in a spacious
Three bedroom apartment
With two terraces
One facing a mountain with almond trees
Another facing the Mediterranean Sea
We moved into a small one bedroom apartment
In the first floor of the Peru Building
Part of Lefrak City's Section 3
Our terrace here facing
The covered fence of a pool
When we left Gibraltar we had disposed
Of all our furnishings
Including some classically constructed pieces
We now had to start from scratch
Money was in short supply
My mother worked in a factory
And my dad in Macy's
Eventually my mom began noticing many of our
Neighbors were placing nice stuff in the basement
To be picked up as garbage
So she decided to recycle
Some lamps and tables
Even a couch into our bare apartment
Every night it seems she would
Go hunting for new items to salvage
Finally one day my dad told her enough
I'm not sure she stopped completely
But we used the furniture she found
For a year until we moved to a
Bigger apartment in another
Section of Lefrak City (5)
This time the terrace faced
The Long Island Expressway
By then my mom had abandoned
Her expeditions and bought new furniture
From Jamaica Avenue
The couch she covered with plastic slippers
Which made it a lot less comfortable
Than the junk one
NO AND YES
A while ago I attended a self discovery workshop
Which made me acutely aware of the power of no
We were yelled at by our partner repeatedly
With the the word no and then with the word yes
When hearing no the body contracts
We are are under attack
With the word yes we are open
Receptive to the world around us
Seeing the sign posted on a passageway
Armed with the seven noes(actually eight)
I am reminded of the self discovery workshop
And how no seems to be all around us
No Parking
No Standing
No Ball Playing
No Pigeon Feeding
No wonder so many of us
Feel out of sorts
We need more yeses in our lives
Yes you can smile(even under your mask)
Yes you can say hello to your neighbor
Yes you can say thank you to the bus driver
Yes you can sit in the park
Yes you can look up at the sky
Yes you can dream
Yes you are free to love
Yes you are free to laugh
Yes you are free to sing
Yes
Yes
Yes
