Sometimes City Life is Underrated

A poem from NovPAD Week 2

Last week in Fall River, walking to the mechanic (again) to pick up Chris’ car.

Sure,
there are Dunkin cups
in the gutter, and the
light pollution blocks any
hope of seeing northern lights,
and the kitchen window view
is three houses, a bus yard,
and Golden Arches in the distance.

But imagine walking 
to a coffee shop 
or the grocery store 
or the mechanic 
when your battery dies
for the third time in a month,
and see what’s there at a
ground level, human pace.

Find a little free library 
on the side of a busy road
stuffed with bookmarks and novels.
Catch a world tour whiff 
of small takeout spots 
(Brazilian, Domincan, Korean),
spices and cultures and
deep fried something.
Hear a fleeting beat 
from an old car radio
playing reggaeton or hip-hop.
Pass the rundown houses
with tiny ground floor
hair salons and appliance shops.
Pause under the trees at a baseball field.
Notice the strange derelict beauty 
of wildflowers in an abandoned lot, 
and a scribble of graffiti to say
“I am here.”

---

🖊️ NovPAD Week 2 Update - 4 out of 7 days

This one was for the prompt “cities” and came from scraps of an abandoned essay I wrote the week I found myself walking home from the mechanic for the third time in a month.

I love to write a nature poem and, like I said last week, will drive a full half hour to take my dog for a walk somewhere outside the city, away from cars and noise. At the same time, cities have a beauty of their own, and a lot of interesting things to notice. So here’s a little love note to Fall River and city life in general.

This came out in a big long stream of consciousness brain dump, then I chopped off the opening and closing sections. I read it on a Poetry Pub Zoom call a couple nights ago, and when I said I was sad to cut the part about how I can kind of see a McDonald’s sign from my bathroom / kitchen window,

j j b r i n s k i

said “oh no put that back or write another poem about it.” So the new first stanza is me returning some of the weird little images I was sad to cut. Thanks JJ!