Chagrin Boulevard Is A Bummer
(Love Song of the Summer)
Through the quiet farmlands of New York. Through the green hills of Pennsylvania. Through the highway, through the traffic and the truck stops.
To the happy horse without his saddle. To the big white barn by the road. To the lazy genius cows lying in the sun.
For the spotless Friday spent in Cleveland. For the young couple married on Saturday and the cans on string tied to the bumper.
To Melody Lane, that wonderful circle to get lost on and laugh. To mysterious Brooklyn, a city that exists simultaneously in two states.
To the worn-out waitress at lunch, caking on her makeup and talking too much about some old boyfriend drunk and dumb on the couch.
To all the pretty servers in the bathroom, crowding the mirror and powdering their noses for cute boys in muscle cars with engines that growl under their hoods like secret hungry lions.
O, to come home from Ohio with a banjo in its case and a whole head full of sweet dreams of that curvy guitar behind glass.
O, to smoke little cigars in Riverside where the strays come out like claws from across the street and purr their way up the stairs and into our laps.
To the cool kid on the front lawn juggling bowling pins and baseballs for the little boys on their bikes riding by.
To the sweet smiling Puerto Rican girl in the West Side who’s lighting her last cigarette and putting together her dreams from scratch. The little restaurant on Elmwood named after her grandmother. The only true mermaids swimming secretly in the harbor. The many epiphanies to be found somewhere in Europe.
For sneakers forever without shoelaces. For fish fries at the thrift store diner. For the dollar store kites flying high above the college campus. For the steps outside painted blue. For the chair by the opened window and the light breeze and the dancing curtain. For the cushions and blankets on the floor. For the new lovers and the cat in heat moaning through the night.
PETER VULLO is a Buffalo-based writer, musician, and student at the University at Buffalo. Chagrin Boulevard is the portion of U. S. Route 422 that runs through the Cleveland area.
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