6 Responses to New Bedford, Massachusetts

1. Patricia Gomes says:

   April 23, 2011 at 11:28 am

   

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   • Michael says:

     April 23, 2011 at 4:36 pm

     Great! Post this on the home page of this blog too if you can. Best, Michael

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     • Patricia Gomes says:

       April 23, 2011 at 8:44 pm

       Thanks — I certainly will!

       Reply
2. Kathryn says:

   April 23, 2011 at 3:03 am

   I love this poem, Maggie! Good choice for Earth Day, too.

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3. Maggie Cleveland says:

   April 22, 2011 at 7:07 pm

   Razing the Mills

   The wrecking ball
   like a clumsy metronome
   keeps time
   in staggered beats
   as it taps
   the façade
   of the monolith
   with a heavy
   kiss.

   Asbestos laden
   frames crack,
   panes of glass and
   floorboards steeped in
   a hundred years of machine oil
   and sweat
   split,

   tumble down the bones
   of the behemoth,
   slam the ground
   and send a rumble
   to the rocks
   across the river.

   What’s left is blasted to bits –
   bulldozed, swept
   into tall piles,
   shoveled into trucks
   and hauled away,

   or blown by handfuls
   into the wind
   with a wish

   that they won’t
   fill the hole
   with poison this time,
   that what’s built

   in its flattened place
   won’t be an empty box
   of concrete and glass
   with a sun bleached
   “for lease”
   sign in the window –

   this year, the air
   is tinged in color,

   even the tips
   of the seagulls’ wings
   are red.

   -Maggie Cleveland
   (first published in Amerarcana: A Bird & Beckett Review, 2010)

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4. Maggie Cleveland says:

   April 20, 2011 at 5:50 pm

   

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