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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