Childhood In New York

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