It began as the GODFATHER OF MATH, evolved into the GOODFATHER OF MATH. Now this. Go figure...

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The kind of humor I like is the thing that makes me laugh for five seconds and think for ten minutes = G. CARLIN...Stain glass, engraved glass, frosted glass
–give me plain glass = JOHN FOWLES ... Music is the mathematics of the gods=PYTHAGORAS ... Nothing is more fluid than language = R. L. SWIHART
I cannot live without the oxygen of laughter = DAWN POWELL ... !!! ... But laughter cannot survive without the hydrogen of gravitas = PAUL OLIVERIO
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Friday, December 4, 2020

This Is Not A Drawbridge ... It Is A DREAM BRIDGE

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But if it could be

drawn open,

 

one million and one

memories 

would pop out

of this suspension bridge.

 

I grew up

in the shadows of 

what you see here

 

I walked on this bridge thirty times.

 

All but three

involved a shortcut

—across its width—

to a Catholic Church

 

My thinking was


if I get run over and die

on the way to or from

Sunday Mass

that would be

an Easy Pass 

to the Promised Land

 

 

The Whitestone Bridge is viewed 

from the continent of North America

and this exact image appears

in the opening credits of BECKER,

starring Ted Danson

 

I lived two blocks away from the bridge 

on the unseen side of this suspension

which is  that thing called Long Island

whose western end is fronted by

the East River 

 

The park adjacent to the bridge

is named for one of our Founding Fathers:

Francis Lewis

but everyone called it Whitestone Park.

 

It is where I smoked my first cigaret

a jazillion years ago,

give or take

a few jaz. 

 

Maybe I should be


reduced to  a mound of salt

because I have 

inundated these pages

with Whitestone Park 

and Whitestone Bridge memories

which truly amount to 

nothing more than

talking to my mother and father 

and sister Linda

 

All of whom are laughing their asses off

in the Promised Land.

***

© PAUL OLIVERIO 

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4 comments:

  1. Any chance you would share
    one of the darker memories?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, why not:
      at the age of thirteen,
      we sat on a park bench
      and sniffed glue...

      Amazingly, my friend made
      the Whiteston Bridge rotate
      so that it was completely
      parallel to the river...

      another friend counted the fish
      who crossed the bridge
      but I think her count
      was off by few dozdn

      Delete
    2. Do you remember the story
      of the woman who was murdered
      under the Whitestone Bridge
      in 1971?

      Delete
    3. I distinctly remember
      that there was no such murder:

      it was a self-inflicted death,
      and I knew the woman
      much better than most people:

      her stunningly beautiful face
      appears at least fifteen times
      in this blog
      and at least twice every hour
      of my life


      Delete