Cold War Landscapes

The seashore was abundant with sand

crabs, suds lapping the slate shore,

people on blankets looking out at waves,

others swimming on wave crests, 

a lifeguard chair on stilts, no undertow. 

Skin cancer, unheard of, came later.

The suburbs were swell, with nearby

woods, paths through trees, birches, 

oaks there before the yards with apple 

trees, cars with chrome, wicker bassinets,

steamrollers, roses, wasp nests, robins,

telephone rings, one with news of death.

The city was big, shadowy. Five-story 

tenements, drives up into a narrow street,

courtyard stone lions, clotheslines strung

window to window, a potted begonia

on a fire escape, a coatrack inside a door,

no rats in walls, not even a mouse. Lucky me!