Sunset Park

I wrote this about two years ago for one of my creative writing classes. It's still one of my favorite poems, based on my favorite place in the world: Sunset Park.

I stand under unholy night skies

twisting with frozen rain, gray and black.

I continue down the street covered with

naked ice.

Bare and exposed, I pass

the gates to Sunset Park.

Evil lonely,

Sunset Park.

Haunting, and disturbed with dark memories.

A vision of that old broken down

unrealistic

Ferris wheel

histories past use.

You were there once, Sunset Park.

When it was burning and glowing

with Christmas trees and swing sets

and lively people with dancing music in their ears!

Yes, you were there

you were the sun that lit the gala.

You--as a human diamond ring.

Taking my hand and wrapping yourself

around my ring finger

I kept you on my left hand.

You were my pain of preference in your tuxedo

but now you sit

in your ungodly basement on a numbered street

underground.

Where I wish I'd wish you were.

And here I stand outside Sunset Park

looking in on

the dead site of my life.

The ferris wheel--the center of my very existence, once.

Now weakened, deformed and awkward like the clock

in Persistence of Memory, Dali knew.

Yes, he knew.

Reviews

[Matthew Smith]

This was very nice. It screams painful nostalgia. It seems you're a victim of the evil quotation marks, like in "the ferris wheel"the center of my very existence, once."

Beyond those little annoyances, this is a very good write. For the record, I'm pretty sure the " comes from an error when you copy/paste--it's originally a long dash.