GARDEN

 

GARDEN

Behind the athletic field of Forest Hills High School

And next to a truck stop

A patch of grass has been turned into a garden

Where different types of crops are grown

 I am curious who came up

With this great idea

Many times when I pass by 

I see people tending the garden

Sometimes an entire family

 In the summer some Sundays

The volunteer gardeners or farmers

Get together and share stories and food

You may think the creation of this garden

Is a small thing

But it goes a long way to making

A neighborhood feel like a home

LEAVES

LEAVES

I passed by a truck filled with fallen leaves

The last collection before spring arrives

The great cycle of life

In with the new 

Out with the old
 

LUMBER

 

 

 LUMBER

I usually walk with my friend John 

Around Forest Hills High School

Each lap is something like a half a mile

We usually do two laps

Sometimes four

As I was waiting for him to meet me in the little sitting area

Belonging to the apartment building where I live

I began observing a nearby tree which looked bare

Except for a few budding leaves at the end of its branches 

A welcomed sign on a blustery cold day in early March 

That spring was preparing to appear

We walked together to the high school

Did our usual stretching exercises

In the middle of the fourth lap 

I noticed a truck parked by the side of the road

Loaded with containers of lumber displaying 

Made in the USA

And an idyllic name

Pleasant River

Like the cans of Campbell soup 

Made famous by Andy Warhol

The identical boxes of Pleasant River lumber 

Seemed to me an  interesting Pop Art design

So I took out my iPhone 6 and snapped a photo

When I got home and saw the picture

I wondered if the Pleasant River lumber comes 

From trees specifically grown

For commercial  purposes   

Which made me question why some trees 

Get to live out their natural life

In grassy areas kept neat for apartment dwellers

While the fate of other trees are sealed from birth

WAR

 WAR

In Kissena Park there is a memorial

For those of Queens

Who died in the Korean War

The history books tell us  

The Korean War lasted from 1950 to 1953

Over one million and a half American males

From the ages of 21 to 29

Were drafted into the military 

In the front  of the memorial

There is a soldier in full battle gear

Holding a rifle marching on

In the back 

A  plaque with four columns of names 

Names of young men who did not return home alive

How strange it must have been for them

Leaving the neighborhoods they grew up in

Transported to a distant place

Caught up in a dispute many of them knew nothing about

They sometimes refer to the Korean War

As the "Forgotten War"

Certainly the families 

Of the 172 young men from Queens listed on the plaque 

Would not agree

LAMP POSTS

LAMP POSTS

In the private streets of Forest Hills Gardens 

Where you need special stickers 

To park your car or you get booted

Which will cost you a $180.00 fee

For the pleasure of getting un-booted

They have their own “Harwich Port blue” lamp posts

With wrought iron streetlights attached on top

One may consider this elitist

Although I must say the effect is quite charming

Especially the design of a sundial on a pedestal

Kept company by trees on either side

Most importantly when it starts to get dark

The light that emits from these unique street lamps

Can be enjoyed by all who pass by

Free of charge

CHURCH

 CHURCH

My brother-in-law the other day

Was telling me how he moved 

From Manhattan fifty years ago

Into a house next to a small church

One block off Corona Avenue

So much has changed in the neighborhood since then

Charming old dwellings are turned into concrete monstrosities

Of four or five floors

Some may call this progress

And  while the church through the years 

May have different names and denominations

The building remains intact

Although I am not religious 

There is something comforting in knowing that

Most likely in another fifty years or so 

When someone visits the area my brother-in-law lived in

They'll find many more changes and in the midst 

Will still be the same small church 

One block off  Corona Avenue 

TOWN HALL

 

TOWN HALL

Passing by this building on Northern Boulevard

You might be wowed by the architecture

Flushing Town Hall  was constructed

In 1862 in a Romanesque Revival style 

Which was popular during the Civil War

With arched windows and spires 

It is a work of art

The history of the building is also impressive

Recruits for the Civil War signed up here

The Great Emancipator Frederick Douglass

Presented a speech in 1865

The showman P.T. Barnum along with

General Tom Thumb displayed

Their theatrical  wonder in the auditorium

 This was a place designed for the community

To have fun

To learn 

To engage in civic duty

One Hundred Fifty Nine years later

Flushing Town Hall still stands 

Still playing an important

Part in the cultural life of the community

Very few buildings(if any) are built  in such a way today

Built to last

Built to serve the interests of the people

Why aren't there Town Halls

Like this in every neighborhood?

Imagine the impact  such a place would have?

Instead we shoddily put up more stores

More office buildings

More places for people to sleep and eat

And almost no enduring places 

For us to think