The Canarsee, then the Dutch
The English, then the Continentals
The Liberty Enlightening, then Her
1919’s newest native
Born to hope-filled immigrants
First-born Grecian blood
Taught how souls are one with land
Detest the thievery, love the thief
Gave me new-world Explorer’s eyes
Revolutionized, thus, Liberated me
My hair flowing out her crown
I call her fire my hometown
Manhattan girl, my whole world
‘Twas my Thanksgiving to be hers
Bid me to breathe free
Original Thought Credit: “The New Colossus,” Emma Lazarus
There was that night
An only slightly dimmed light
There was that song I sang to you –I believe you sang back– about being crazy ‘ bout you
An ode I’m inclined to replay over and over and over in my mind, in hopes that I’d grow tired
There was that us celebrating love
An honest Thanksgiving
Nice boy
Back in school, we’d ride bikes
Just not together
Parallel lines, at the same time
One of us too, too shy
Lone wolves, we
Both damn quick
With pencil and paper, too
Hearts raced, true love confessed
Notes never delivered
Our legs unable to take the leap
Fast-forward decades later
And analog becomes digital
I knew not your name until now:
Fragile
Are we okay with being alone
With no other soul to hold the ladder
To stand by us, tasting, in the test-kitchen that is life
Allowing, for once, after all the illusion
Reality
When we release our grasp and find no one but ourselves
Need we ask why
What mythical stealth robbed us here
Who climbed into this tower, cat-like, to gleefully take
What will we make of it
This secondhand plan that has nothing to do with the tales we were told
A finer legacy, perhaps
And when life hurts hard
Decide to soften your eyes
Choose a hope-filled heart
A sweet little joint
Sometimes rockin’
Right now, not
A bit too quiet for me
But it’s the eve of Sunday eve
The neighbors and I are done in the yards
Rolling up the sidewalks
Thinking about what to cook for Sunday supper
Here tonight, it’ll be your favorite
Anything I’d prepare, you said
So shall it be
Lots of color, but only a dash of laughter
We’ve run low since you’ve gone
This sweet little joint of a home
Why did you burn it down?
He never his used looking glass
To further contemplate
The diamond in the rough he held
Failed to appreciate
Her too-many facets
Her intellect and whim
All for his sense of pridefulness
What brilliance, lost on him
This woman’s worth upon his life
Her presence in his home
The lack of foresight in him then
Brings his heart now to roam
This is all okay
Everything that went away
My replacing you
I wish I could’ve told her
Someone should’ve told her
That Friday, after school
She radiated! 
Light bounced from her hair
Every which way forever
Stayed with her and it wouldn’t stop
Shot from each strand straight through her
Causing what must be
An eternally electric smile
So I’ll tell the lightning gods
Do not forsake her in school
Given space
All it contains
As an endowment, a gift
A choice now
Plunder the earthen quiet
Pluck sentient jewels as personal trophies
Place my footstep as an uncontrolled burn upon what sustains me?
How do I treat thee, miracles
Poison myself no more
Ponder the treasure with all I am
Position omniscience between it and a carnal mind
All the acreage
As certain as certain can be
A zealot protector
Bless’ed space
LisaRosier.com 