Childhood in New York

Childhood in New York
 
Pocket change dangling from open pockets
candy stores soda fountains five and dimes
root beer floats licorice sticks baseball cards
and chewing gum
stick ball bats against dark black streets
and smells of pink rubber balls

Sun filters slowly through silent water
of fire hydrants where children play
and dance their days away

Thick colored chalk on grey cement
tell the stories of their young lives
hopscotch double Dutch and rhymes
sing songs of childhood dreams
as mothers out windows call to and fro
penny arcades newspaper boys on bikes
throwing bundles of dailies to stoops
bright red balloons on whitened twine
held up to oxen’s of the sun

They do not notice the noise and grime    
tenements with close lines drape banners
that rise and fall to breath of sails in the wind
open windows to the morning air
sewer covers where steam rises to the evening sky
car horns call in the distance
the lonely cop walks his beat

City streets playground of sounds
that whistle full of joy in a summers day
roof tops black tar beaches of pidgin coops
cigarettes and beer and
radios play in background squares