the rix mix

From Dave Roskos' Big Hammer zine, not sure of year. I don't write poems like this anymore. It's a good poem but it's a poem a lot of poets could write. I gradually changed over to publishing poems only I could write.

If I wrote this poem now, the truck would be loaded with exotic parrots illegally imported from Guatemala, squawking nonsensical phrases in English & Spanish, the truck driver extremely anxious the cop would hear them, ask for the bill of lading, & conclude the trailer didn't sound like 5000 crappy ratchet wrench sets from China.

Labels: Linden NJ, poem

Labels: Linden NJ, motel hotel, New Jersey, postcard

For twelve years I lived in a tree,
in winter I shared breadcrumbs
with birds on bare branches,

then bloomed with the magnolia,
matched wits with wasps,
sensed the blurry bats
sweeping mosquitoes.

Beneath my nest
a tangle of thorny roses
formed a wild jungle
with the raspberry bushes
& unmowed grass.
Raccoons, rats, cats
fought for territory
in murky tunnels,
I heard their shrieks
& congratulated myself
on my perfect perch.

Through the summer I loved
beetles & cicadas
singing near me
without my knowing their shapes
or certain how & why
they made their music.

Often late at night
I looked for the lights
of others like me living in trees,
I felt safer when my darkness
was patterned with shadows.

A season came when the leaves fell
& I fell along with them,
fell from my tree
like an ordinary apple
that had clung to its branch
too stubbornly
& had been left to ripen
beyond beauty & taste.

Perhaps I belong on the ground
dragging my knuckles as I walk,
but I believe I might have climbed higher
& become a chattering monkey prince
or at least a mockingbird.

Whenever I look back
I find myself looking up
for a home someplace above me.

Labels: Linden NJ, poem

Bumped up from 4/27 comments. For six years unbeknownst to each other Jill from Brilliant At Breakfast & I lived about a ten minute walk apart in Linden NJ but on opposite sides of US Route One. She was next to Linden Airport, which in addition to many small planes also hosted helicopters & an occasional blimp. I was on a dead end street by a park, but we heard the same 18 wheeler trucks roaring through at 3 am. She may have been living there when a nearby chemical plant blew up, a spectacular, frightening event. She was from the quiet tree lined streets of Westfield, I was from the quiet tree-lined Roselle Park, so that part of Linden was no doubt a rather strange place for both of us.

I lived in Linden from 1978 to 1984, on a little street called Harding Avenue, off of South Stiles Street, in a building owned by the owner by the fuel oil company next door, who seemed to own the entire block. It was a nice little neighborhood, a block from Linden Airport, within practically spitting distance from the tank farms, and I could see the Exxon flare stacks from my living room window.

That part of Jersey really IS pretty ugly, for the most part.

Bob, do you by any chance remember a restaurant called the Drop Zone in Roselle? This was the weirdest restaurant ever. It was run by a WWII fanatic, it was laid out like a military mess hall, and they played Frank Sinatra music all the time. Salad was served in metal bowls like you've seen in movies about Army mess halls, and the food was sort of mediocre-to-passable red sauce Italian.

The other lore I remember from my stays in that part of Jersey (I grew up in Westfield) were the nice little bar at the Cranford Hotel, where you could go with a date and have a drink in front of a roaring real fireplace; Big Stash's; some dance hall that was frequented by Portuguese guys from Carteret; and the hot roast beef sandwiches we used to eat on cold winter days at the Exxon station at the corner of Route 1 and South Stiles Street where I used to work on weekends. posted by Jill

The dance hall I don't know. What was with those Portuguese guys? Big Stash's in Linden is popular for kielbasa, goulash, & generously portioned deli sandwiches.

I went to the Drop Zone once & only once. The owner would play the National Anthem & expect everyone to stand up & salute. A lawyer who was eating there sued him over it & lost. There were plenty of better inexpensive spaghetti & antipasto joints; Tep's in Rahway (now seafood), one in Cranford that turned into The Office, & of course Spirito's in Peterstown, still there & smoke-free for the first time since 1492.

Cranford Hotel had a rep as a pleasant meat rack for suburban singles. Only hung out there a few times. My brother & I were late returning for the evening session of my father's wake in Elizabeth because we decided to drive over to Stash's for pastrami on rye, & a couple beers in his honor (Dad appreciated Stash's) & the place was a bit crowded.

When I went back to college in 1990 I used to study at the Wendy's on Wood Ave. in the afternoon. For some reason they played classical music over the speakers, it was never busy. I'd get a burger & iced tea from the value menu. Be there for several hours & nobody bothered me. posted by Bob

Labels: Linden NJ