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
About this poem
Memories of growing up in New York City
Font size:
Submitted by sunrasmoondog on June 07, 2022
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 1:00 min read
- 5 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | X ABXXXX XCC XXBXXXXXX XXXXXXX XCAXX |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 1,132 |
Words | 202 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 1, 6, 3, 9, 7, 5 |
Translation
Find a translation for this poem in other languages:
Select another language:
- - Select -
- 简体中文 (Chinese - Simplified)
- 繁體中文 (Chinese - Traditional)
- Español (Spanish)
- Esperanto (Esperanto)
- 日本語 (Japanese)
- Português (Portuguese)
- Deutsch (German)
- العربية (Arabic)
- Français (French)
- Русский (Russian)
- ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada)
- 한국어 (Korean)
- עברית (Hebrew)
- Gaeilge (Irish)
- Українська (Ukrainian)
- اردو (Urdu)
- Magyar (Hungarian)
- मानक हिन्दी (Hindi)
- Indonesia (Indonesian)
- Italiano (Italian)
- தமிழ் (Tamil)
- Türkçe (Turkish)
- తెలుగు (Telugu)
- ภาษาไทย (Thai)
- Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
- Čeština (Czech)
- Polski (Polish)
- Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
- Românește (Romanian)
- Nederlands (Dutch)
- Ελληνικά (Greek)
- Latinum (Latin)
- Svenska (Swedish)
- Dansk (Danish)
- Suomi (Finnish)
- فارسی (Persian)
- ייִדיש (Yiddish)
- հայերեն (Armenian)
- Norsk (Norwegian)
- English (English)
Citation
Use the citation below to add this poem to your bibliography:
Style:MLAChicagoAPA
"Childhood in New York" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 10 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/128788/childhood-in-new-york>.
Discuss the poem Childhood in New York with the community...
Report Comment
We're doing our best to make sure our content is useful, accurate and safe.
If by any chance you spot an inappropriate comment while navigating through our website please use this form to let us know, and we'll take care of it shortly.
Attachment
You need to be logged in to favorite.
Log In