I see a suburb . . .

lillian

one street after another
plat map symmetrical.
Slide rule log-a-rhythm’s
syncopated beat.
Red-amber-green lights
directing the inane.

Where are the pick-up trucks,
dust-kicking rolling roads,
clothesline flapping shirts,
and front porch swings?


Written for dVerse, the virtual pub for poets, where we’re asked to write suburban poetry today!  Looking at my Seascape photos and post, also done today, I think I prefer the sea side to the suburbs!

16 thoughts on “I see a suburb . . .”

  1. frankhubeny February 22, 2017 / 8:45 am

    Front porch swings are not what I would expect to see in suburbia either. Nor clotheslines and trucks on dirt roads. Not quite urban. Not quite rural.

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    • lillian February 23, 2017 / 8:17 am

      We spent a number of years when first married in Marengo, Iowa. A small town with now traffic lights, a town square, and wonderful folks who hung their sheets out to dry in the breeze, canned jams and participated in Future Farmers of America and the 4H club. Wonderful years!

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  2. annell4 February 22, 2017 / 9:37 am

    Love this, I think it could be a country song? I would be fun to sing!

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    • lillian February 23, 2017 / 8:18 am

      Fun idea! So glad you enjoyed 🙂

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  3. Oloriel February 22, 2017 / 1:16 pm

    I love the questions of your poems. We often think of suburbs what we will, and have our own perception of it. It is way too often described either as a complete, rigid wasteland or a slice of Heaven itself. The truth I guess is who we are, at that moment.

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    • lillian February 23, 2017 / 8:19 am

      You are right. There is joy and dignity in every neighborhood — no matter the wealth or poverty. It is the human spirit. There are neighborhoods though, where poverty and crime can over run that spirit and hope is hard to come by.

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    • lillian February 23, 2017 / 8:21 am

      Thanks, Bjorn! 🙂 This was really a hard prompt for me to wrap my head around….many tries in my journal and many big scratch outs til I came up with this.

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  6. Grace February 22, 2017 / 5:55 pm

    Some places have different stuff I guess ~ For me its even more back to nature, just bamboo homes and unpaved streets ~

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    • lillian February 23, 2017 / 8:22 am

      As I said to another prompt….we spent some wonderful years in rural Iowa…and now we live in the midst of Boston, right in the city in a high rise. Totally different and yet I love(d) both.

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    • lillian February 23, 2017 / 8:22 am

      Thank you! Glad you enjoyed.

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  8. Bev February 23, 2017 / 11:27 am

    “Red, amber and green lights, directing the inane”. I often sit at a stop light looking at all the cars about me and think we are as an ant farm…those that are here want to go there, those that are there want to go here…busy with our inane busyness! I connected with your words. Thank you.

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