Legacies and Snapdragon Dreams

Legacies and Snapdragon Dreams

I am trying to type this poem

but the glare through my transparent brain

won't allow the transgression of words

I was Chicago once and New York once as well

accents differing like the EL versus the subway

in some kind of grudge match

the noise about the same

the distance varying

between childhood and teen years

a supplemental income to raise me and my sister

in chains of what we were supposed to be

but aren't

we escaped expectations

when old enough to ride those

rail cars ourselves

and meet strangers

talk to them

get impressions of those not of the family tree

I looked out the window as we passed by

suburbs

houses with the same yards, same swing sets

same longing to be as all others are

and yet, that beleaguered scene

was not ours

double-wides, single wides

the width of rebellion

solidarity left Chicago for the South

or for  a South in the East of existence

we grew

as strangers

then familial roots

reminded us

who we were to each other

years after the chains snapped apart

and we found a reconstruction

that left New York and Chicago

in a rearview mirror's illogical logic

figuring a short day

might be getting shorter

and that sun that prohibited

writing the poem

was just telling me

I was supposed to revise my thinking

and then write poems

no longer basking in shadows of past

but longevity of future

and love on the same page

as the winds that swept

a New York bay

and a Chicago lakefront

then left those behind

for internal mountains and forests

of understanding.

and now

I can write my poem.

Reviews

[Desert Knave]

I grew up in one of the suburbs, in a ticky-tack neighborhood with only 4 designs, and all I can say is the noise factor of a city was never there. Anyhow, enjoyable read that has me yearning my first trip on a train. ~Jim

[jacob erin-cilberto]

Thank you, Jim...taking a train ride is definitely an experience.

[Lorry]

I've visited both cities and can understand the accents differing but the sameness being apparent too.
I never felt homesick once in Chicago though, but New York it hit me like a ton of bricks as I looked down from the hotel verandah one night and the noise emanating from everywhere just got to me and made me want to pack up and go back home. I didn't though, but I never returned after that.
Forgive but I knoweth not what people from Chicago call themselves so for now I'll use Chicaganites, which im sure is wrong but shouldn't be! 😀
The biggest difference between the two was i never felt once that id be shot in Chicago, as people in new York seem to think I was translucent too and tried on many an occasion to walk right through me then take their day out on me for existing in the same place.
They should definitely let tourists carry guns in new York though, for their own safety.
Walking under the el was an eye opener too and left me thinking no wonder they are usually hidden underground, yet New York beats Chicago hands down for noise!
If you've ever managed to write a poem on the el, you are a better man than me Jacob... or more deaf! 😀

[jacob erin-cilberto]

Chicagoans.
I was glad when we moved from NYC but that is because I am not fond of cities except to visit for one day. I like country, farms, pastures, Vermont.

[Lorry]

Thanks. Maybe you become chicaganites though when you're on the El! 😀