New York

From the green Statue Of Liberty

to the Empire State Building which towers high in the sky as if just to showoff its height.

New York is the amusement park of The United States.

It’s full of light and happiness and screaming excited children,

and a strange magic too.

Like a fortune teller or an escape artist,

New York radiates this wonder from every city block.

Working with the rest of the cast in the show.

The taxis are the loving yet bored parents bringing us from event to event.

The Street Signs are the proud ringmasters announcing events in a deep jubilant voice,

And then of course the buildings are the tents where the performers

–and every other aspect of the show.–

Put on their event,

(just doing the things that they have done for their whole life.)

Then the show goes on like an seemingly immortal sword swallower and

the music of the city,

the shouting,

and all of the delightful feelings

continue though out the whole night.

The clouds beneath the sky

above

wings outstretched

gliding high

breeze in my face

hair streaming behind

free to be myself released from my life

to be alone

isolated from the stares

the eyes on the back of my head

Focused on my every move.

The eight million reasons to hide under a rock.

or behind Lady Liberty’s spires.

To have my own dimension,

slice of shelter, to have to myself

perhaps a snow-blanketed square of Central Park.

finally away,

this is how

the dream always goes

but then I wake up.

The Statue Of Liberty

With her torch set high, pointing up in a symbol of hope and freedom,

The Statue Of Liberty stares out at The New York Harbor

pondering why so few people come to the land of hope

through her gateway.

She wonders why people run inside her

and look out of her crown.

But most of all why she can’t move and can only watch as freight ships full of cargo,

glide smoothly on the glass like water.

She stands frozen in place.

and she remembers the

“good old days”

where people would cry tears

of gilded joy

at her sight.

Marking the beginning of the golden land.

And now watches as steam from

barges fill her nose

and tourist pose for pictures,

she’s no longer a god.

Simply a mortal image.

Thinking about New York behind her. And

Wondering how she can be the symbol of America

but still can’t turn around.

Brooklyn Bridge

Soaring over the shining placid water of New York

spanning the gap between the bustling metropolis of Manhattan

to the quiet borough of Brooklyn.

The juxtaposition of two

different lives,

two different stories.

two different dimensions.

The bridge itself:

a god of architecture, gleaming arches

majestic towers, that explode from the quiet houses

of Brooklyn

that even jumps free from the dominant skyscrapers of Manhattan.

Cables tense, holding the regal landmark.

Litter the ends of the bridge.

As it stands, a portal from dimension to dimension.

Cleanliness to filth.

Green to grey.

Two opposite boroughs are united.

Through one piece of stone, metal, wood and wire.

Turning the jagged trench between two opposites,

a walk through paradise.

As If We Could Change The World

Sifting through the blue green water the orange hull of the ferry

glides into Manhattan Harbor.

Seagulls swoop and glide around them and passengers shriek as they grab a glimpse of the Statue Of liberty as she sits dejected in the bay.

Over a 100 years old now

She’s watched the world change from a Paradise to

a rejected shell of its past.

Watched it turn from the Beatles

to Lady Gaga

and from color to grey.

The ferry is static.

The same throughout all these years

all these opportunities to try and change our fortune.

Passengers clamor on and clamor off.

Just as they did in 1905.

When the world was still young without all the innovations

we have now.

When people had something to live for and they

actually had a reason to enjoy life.

Can we imagine that,

life with no climate change,

life with the 2G, 3G, 4G, whatever G craze.

Simply evaporated.

Life the way life should be

and the people still had

a chance

a chance to save the world.

To save ourselves to show us the

only

important thing left in life anymore.

and it is time to realize. If we don’t do

something.

The future won’t be a blessing,

it will be a curse.

Jack Carlos
Age 12, Grade 7
Riverdale Country School
Gold Key