My Street

Four months before I moved in,
The corner where the high school is built
Was painted pitch black to me
Three weeks before I signed my lease,
The corner where my house is rooted was painted golden to me.
And yes! Your guess is as good as mine
That’s probably why I live here today

I heard the many versions
Of the tall tales retold and revised
In many a ways with twists and tweaks
They came to me like duplicates of printed fairy tales
As if to say “And they lived happily ever after”
Others were simply tragic
I’m not talking tragedy.
I’m talking the tragedy that molds
The ignition of the fight or flight hormones
Into an utter dilemma!

My street, my street
As echoes of - “this street is such a chameleon”
Lingered in my mind’s ear
I slipped on my own specks
Looked through my own lens
And for my own self
I saw the face of this chameleon
Through my own eyes

My street astonishes me
Its sharp curbs just like a rainbow
Turns from good old Oxford Street
Into our very own Riverside Drive
Its asphalt like the highways glides
The wheels of the vehicles that ply it
The army of trees that stand on its sides
Make it a complete avenue
They glow in the autumn, blossom in the spring
And make it feel like Christmas in December
A complete highlight of its dynamic nature!

It feels different on any given day
Its approach to me from a far away journey, is a relief
Like a pain killer is to an achy body
It communicates and channels sounds into my room
Like a mother does to her baby

It aggravates me somehow
When its sidewalks are hidden under inches of snow
Like a nagging wife does to her husband
It distracts me with loud sirens of ambulances and police cars
Like the devil does to a believer
It is a rescue to me from dangerous animals in the side bushes
Like the job of a fireman

My street, my street
If you asked me to describe in one word
My street,
I’ll be the first to put “All that”
Into one whole piece!

My street, my street
Today, might not look, feel, sound, smell or taste like yesterday
But one thing I know will never vary
Is its worth
Remember the face of that chameleon?
It is the same each time its body changes
My street is the only way that leads me home

Like that one sole path of life
Is to humankind


*Also visit Panorama-Blaze

~Poem by Trudy-Elsie

03-25-10

10:27pm