Short Towners Poems

Condemnation, confrontation
  Nasty, no-compromise nation

Protestors plentiful, a passel irruptive
  Ornery out-of-towners, so disruptive

Downtowns deflowered in
  Portland Chicago, Seattle
Lawless looters ~
  Time to skedaddle...

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Traffic and pedestrians
Perform a do-si-do.
Cityfolk, experienced,
Know just which way to go.

Every last participant,
Of flesh or chrome and steel,
Bows or curtsies to his partner
In this urban reel.

In and out they weave and turn,
Like threads upon a loom.
Out-of-towners watch in awe,
Anticipating doom.

At some point in this promenade
The music stops and then,
The dancers separate until
They’ll do-si-do again....

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Out-of-towners in the city,
Seeing folks go rushing by,
Seem to think it’s such a pity
Their hellos get no reply.

Small-town friendliness ‘round here
Sticks out like the sorest thumb.
In this urban atmosphere,
Self-absorbed we’ve all become.

There’s no room for conversation
With a person we don’t know.
Why allow a complication
To disrupt life’s ebb and flow?

Still, we might return a nod;
More than that, we’d find it odd....

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I check the license plates of cars
Parked all around my block,
Which proves that to New York
So many people still do flock.

Here’s Arizona, Massachusetts,
California, too.
Of course, there’s Pennsylvania
And New Jersey, passing through.

Surprisingly, there’s Kansas,
Also Carolina (North).
I wonder why these people
From their native states set forth.

It’s hard to find a parking place
(For on the street, it’s free),
Especially when out-of-towners
Grab a spot from me!...

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I walk like a New Yorker
At a swift and steady pace.
In other towns, my gait might seem
A little out of place.

New Yorkers never saunter,
Rarely ramble, hardly stroll
For on city streets, such movement
Would quite quickly take its toll.

So when out-of-towners visit,
You can spot them right away
As they amble down the sidewalk,
Thinking such a thing’s okay.

It might be just fine in places
Where the pace of life is slow
But a genuine New Yorker
Needs to go-go-go-go-GO!...

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