June 30, 2012
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Gary, Indiana: A Poem
It was like the town was genetically predisposed
To making bad decisions
Unknowingly dedicated to the town's destruction
Land that no one wants to occupy
But by those who can't leaveWhere is the tour guide
Where is the bus
Brochures and rusted white panels
Plug this convention center in
Let's dine in fine wine
Stroll the parks
Exhibit the museums
Exercise the comfortWe will dredge Atlantis
Pick off the barnacles
End racial divisions
Rid the world of sweet, lethal powders
Childhoods in the trade
Clean the history written on train cartsBad decisions
Ones related to immediate survival
Where comets have struck
Comments (5)
love that last stanza, especially, N E L SON. I was in Gary one (Gary Indiana, Gary Indiana, Gary, Indiana) bicycled three miles from my friend's apartment to the University where my friend was teaching...in the pouring rain...with pneumonia. Ahhh, yes, fond memories (no, really) of my youth ((sigh)).
GREAT photograph.
I remember driving through Gary to the beach on lake Michigan on US 20 with my parents and seeing the amazing blast furnaces-- long gone. It was amazing.
Gary is one of the saddest, spookiest towns I've ever seen. Your words captured it nicely.
You nailed this one! I can see it clearly. It always scared me to drive there every day to work... Potential wasted and people stagnant!
I think we ate in a diner in Gary in 1970. There was gum under the table.
Gary, Indiana!
What a wonderful name,
Named for Elbert Gary of judiciary fame.
Gary, Indiana, as a Shakespeare would say,
Trips along softly on the tongue this way--
Gary, Indiana, Gary Indiana, Gary, Indiana,
Let me say it once again.
Gary, Indiana, Gary, Indiana, Gary, Indiana,
That's the town that "knew me when."
If you'd like to have a logical explanation
How I happened on this elegant syncopation,
I will say without a moment of hesitation
There is just one place
That can light my face.
Gary, Indiana,
Gary Indiana,
Not Louisiana, Paris, France, New York, or Rome, but--
Gary, Indiana,
Gary, Indiana,
Gary Indiana,
My home sweet home.