“Shine” by Mary Platz Hughes<\/p><\/div>\n

Stars that in California glitter hard and crystal
\nshimmer over our lake.<\/p>\n

We eat pierogis and walleye
\nwe read of killers who lure women with promise of love.<\/p>\n

We drive by crumbling mansions:
\nmillionaire’s row.<\/p>\n

Our emerald necklace is long as God’s arm.
\nOur children don’t ask why is the sky blue.<\/p>\n

We scorn jibes: our river burned first;
\nwe founder in floods on Deadman’s Curve.<\/p>\n

We tell dour tales of declining empire.
\nWe read Derf and take pride in our funk.<\/p>\n

NASA Glenn lures us to starflight.
\nOur politicians star in the tabloids.<\/p>\n

We make loud music and breed bitter genius.
\nWe drink Nosferatu and Elliot Ness<\/p>\n

Drunk on honeysuckle, day-lily, moonflower scent,
\nwe make love on front porches in the blackout night.<\/p>\n

We wear pants with elastic waistbands
\nand thumb noses at New Yorker black dresses.<\/p>\n

Our names are unspellable, five consonants in a row:
\nski is not a sport to our city, but a family suffix.<\/p>\n

We consider moving, but where would we go?
\nWhat church in LA serves cabbage roll suppers?<\/p>\n

We tell legends of freighters broken in two:
\nour lake is eerie, our tower is terminal.<\/p>\n

We watch cats slink, old sly cats with rumpled fur.
\nWe prevail and grow old. Our stars shimmer.<\/p>\n

~ Mary A. Turzillo<\/p>\n

. . .<\/p>\n