Cityscapes

CA2: There was something about it, yes. There is a corner, it’s 22nd and Chestnut, and it’s where I found a new triumph of the possible! The architect Frank Furness built the First Unitarian Church in 1886. When you take someone there for the first time they will often remark, “I love the angel wings carved into the façade!” I say nothing to correct this. But on closer examination you will see that these are not angel wings but tree and plant fronds. This world is our Heaven, he says with these carvings, best to keep it beautiful. The angelic world. Poems in search of the angelic world when searching is not needed. Just stand still, look, it’s ALL AROUND US!!

CA1: Yoke fell apart and everyone’s on their own. Dubious decorations, why not spurs, why not hand grenades?

CA2: Why not love? Let’s answer, YES! You cannot help learning love at certain points in your life. I hope this for everyone at least. Money is not an issue. Money may be the biggest problem if it’s there for love. Friends who lived on little house boats docked where George Washington made his crossing. Where William Penn landed, where before them both Lenni Lenape kept camp and fished the centuries away before the Campbell’s Soup factory filled the river with soup byproduct. Tomato? Cream of Mushroom?

I wasn’t there. I wasn’t born. But I had friends who lived in

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