|
|
|
Classic and Contemporary Poetry
COOPER SQUARE, by KAREN SWENSON Poet's Biography
First Line: A mother on long island buys her son
Last Line: And beg beyond all affluence.
Subject(s): Drugs & Drug Abuse; New York City; Manhattan; New York, New York; The Big Apple
First Line: A mother on long island buys her son
Last Line: And beg beyond all affluence.
Subject(s): Drugs & Drug Abuse; New York City; Manhattan; New York, New York; The Big Apple
A mother on Long Island buys her son
heroin out of her household money, puts
it on the list between coffee and lightbulbs
and counts her rosary at night.
Manhattan has gone back to beads.
They necklace the cube in Cooper Square.
Daddy's strung-out seeds in Manhattan's labyrinth
become an indeterminate disease of initials, OD and DOA.
On 105th St. an OD waits to become a DOA
in the brick-and-broken-bottle sun.
The children park their bicycles to pick his pockets.
The old woman in the liquor store calls the cops.
Experimenting with their own chemistry
the flower children, all their petals blown,
lean hungry under the cube in Cooper Square
and beg beyond all affluence.
Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!
Other Poems of Interest...
READY FOR THE CANNERY by BERTON BRALEY
TRANTER IN AMERICA by AUGUST KLEINZAHLER
MEETING YOU AT THE PIERS by KENNETH KOCH
FEBRUARY EVENING IN NEW YORK by DENISE LEVERTOV
ON 52ND STREET by PHILIP LEVINE
THREE POEMS FOR NEW YORK by JOSEPHINE MILES
NEW YORK SUBWAY by HILDA MORLEY