Return Poem by Laurence Overmire

Staten Island Ferry
Churning seaward cuts the harbor glass
Its crystalline wake
Diamond bright in the midday sun
Old man on the deck
Looks up at man-made mountains of
Lead and steel
They do not return his gaze
They can’t of course
See
The wonder in those aging eyes
What dreams have we
That build our towers to the stars...

Ah there she is
Proud lady, standing tall
Her golden torch ablaze
Does she still care
These many years
A young lad then
Wept grateful tears
In the smoky days of ’44
Never to return to the blood-stained soil of
His fathers’ fathers
Orphaned
He surrenders his heart
To the maiden of the waves
Does she still care?

Follow the tear
In an old man’s eye
And look to the beginning
Feel the hearts that beat
Unshackled joy
Forever to be
Free.


(Previously published in Indie Journal, Oct.1999; Footprints, Vol.3, No.1, Summer 2000)