Good Old New York

You love it, you hate it There's no escaping the Mad impassioned voice of freedom Crying from its streets The hold it takes upon your heart From the quiet oasis of Central Park To the honking blast of Broadway From the proud progressive stateliness of Rockefeller Center to The broken-bottle wasteland of The Bowery From the Cloisters quiet contemplation To the swirling artistry of the Guggenheim From the bohemian tree-lined Greenwich Village lanes To the posh pretentious shops of the Upper East Side From the cavernous vault of Wall Street To the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Madison Square Garden Lincoln Center and the Met And the vacant place on the island's southwest corner Where twin towers once stood like sentinels Left a hole in the city's heart Memories, dreams, and lost ambitions New Yorkers will never forget From Queens' ethnic neighborhoods To Brooklyn's fabled bridge To the House That Ruth Built Buried in the hot, molten center of the Bronx To the yearning howl of Harlem that Refuses to be ignored This is America Like it or not This is the place where Liberty stands Boldly casting its light upon the world's Darkest waters No matter when you leave You'll always come back Its memory stings and suckles The cold fresh slap of humanity Full in the face Honest and true If there is to be a future Spanned like so many bridges Across the narrow straits of our divide That future is New York. ~ Laurence Overmire (Previously published in New York Minute: An Actor's Memoir, Indelible Mark Publishing,2017)