CREATION (Dedicated to Helen)

 

CREATION

Engulfed by concrete

Within the seats of Yellowstone Park

Life somehow finds a way to rise

Creation is the default mode of the universe

REFLECTION

 REFLECTION

Reflecting on a reflection

 

AFTERMATH

AFTERMATH

In some neighborhoods of Queens, people went back to their normal lives after the flood waters of Hurricane Ida. In others, they weren't so lucky.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/06/nyregion/queens-flooding-cleanup.html

 

https://nypost.com/2021/09/05/de-blasio-tours-queens-business-ravaged-by-ida-floodwaters/ 

https://nypost.com/2021/09/06/biden-oks-nys-major-disaster-declaration-for-ida-damage/

MORNING AFTER

 

MORNING AFTER

The morning after the remnants 

Of Hurricane Ida dumped

More than seven inches of rain

The sun is out in Queens

The cicadas are singing

And a monarch butterfly 

Is going about its business

Nature never takes a break

CICADA

 

CICADA

Leaving my apartment building this morning

Walking down the pathway to Yellowstone Boulevard

Resting on a plant I noticed a large insect

Initially I thought it was a dragonfly

I texted a picture to my niece who is my personal Wikipedia

To nature as she lives out in the country in Southern Virginia

She told me it wasn't a dragonfly but a cicada

According to her:

"It probably recently hatched. They live underground for 

19 years and then surface and only live for a few weeks."

The cicada I observed on the leaf didn't move much

Maybe it was acclimating to life in 

The wilds of Queens

Or perhaps it was just taking a nap

Before it eats sings and mates

IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN

IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN

No more waiting to get into the library

Return to our normal lives

We had our chance

United States

Avg. on Aug, 7, 2021

New Cases 108,513 +111%

New Deaths 506 +89%

 As the poem goes:

For all sad words of tongue and pen, The saddest are these, 'It might have been'.

 

 

UNDERPASS

 UNDERPASS

Right across from where 

Donald Trump went to high school

There is an underpass 

Which tries to give you the illusion 

You are entering an underworld

While not exactly a place Hades might hangout

It does have its moments

As you first go down the stairs you are greeted 

By a crumbled pack of Marlboro 100 Lights cigarettes

Broken glass is scattered on the ground

And there is a generous display of trash

Plastic and paper bags like they've been 

There for hundreds of years rest comfortably

Next to a Red Mango yogurt  paper cup leaning on

A container recently prepared by Dagan Catering

Marked: Egg salad sandwich  

               Side salad 

You are also treated to a variety of empty bottles and cans:

Poland Spring water (born in Maine since 1845)

Wine (80% Cabernet Sauvignon 20% Merlot)

Smirnoff Zero Sugar Infusions(Strawberry & Rose)

Evan Williams Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey(Kentucky's 1st Distiller)

Modelo beer

Dole sliced pineapples

Guava nectar

Just to name a few

You don't know who or what you 

Will find as you go through the underpass

The walls of peeling paint scarred by artless graffiti

Make you feel at anytime someone or something

Can sneak up from behind  and grab you

So picking up your pace seems the best option

Funny enough I have walked through many times

But I have actually never seen anyone else there

Just the leftovers 

Of a quite a devilish party I imagine