HUNDRED-MILE HOME
Poetry and Photos by Susan Petrie
EARLY EVENING ON 4TH STREET
Behind the brick factory stack
already the moon is visible
a sheer papery disk.
The Frito-Lay truck
bounces from 4th to Canal
its axels
straddling holes
and patched pavements.
Boys on bikes
race the wrong way
down one-way streets,
while three fireman lounge
out front of the station
frowning,
tapping quiet codes
on their phones
as tiny petals draw down
from spring’s flowering trees
collecting in lacy piles
on slate sidewalks,
on street corners,
and in the rusty
raised letters
of circular sewer caps
ALBANY
MARGARET, 1938
SHE HAS BEEN SWIMMING IN THE ERIE CANAL
SHE HAS BEEN SWIMMING IN THE ERIE CANAL
As if once
there was a canal
a Lock 1
she swan-dived
into the place
where there was a canal
she touched
touched, face first
into the water, slurried water
from a river
her friends dove in
dove in too, into the canal
where there was once a canal
and an intake valve
it opened, the valve
as if Margaret was fourteen
into the Lock
diving, intake valve open, an arm
Bev’s arm, locks around her neck
Margaret’s neck, saving her, the arm
when the intake valve opened
drew water down, down her
in it, with an arm, when the arm
around her neck, Bev’s arm would save her.
once there was a canal
as if it was here
once it drew
drew the world’s attention
drew water down. as if.
THREE AXES OF FLIGHT
“In 1910, when the New York World Newspaper offered a $10,000 prize for the first successful flight between Albany and NYC, following the Hudson River, Glenn Curtiss again determined to be first, and did so in a craft he had named the “Hudson Flyer.” He won the prize money, nationwide recognition…”
Outside the Port
that mysterious fortress of Albany
circles a boy on a bike
with a bag of bottles and cans
texting, what does he know about flight?
Secrets of mastering pitch and roll and yaw.
The rudder’s the thing that steadies the yaw.
Glenn Curtiss’s sign pitched behind gates at the Port
Hell Rider, he named his plane the Hudson Flyer
our heroes scattered on signs around Albany
the boy sees what we don’t because he collects cans
circling with little wings on his bike.
Flying Glenn Curtiss first raced bikes
Frames, tires, body, mastering roll and yaw,
Built motorcycles, then a carburetor with soup cans
Fastest man in the world, but no one goes to the Port.
Our city’s history, littered like cans in Albany.
The boy with the empties circling on his street flyer.
HENRY HUDSON PARK
An eagle drawn from deadwood &
transparent river skin
herons drop in graceful pairs
across evening’s setting sun
Eastern shore, your homes are tilted
toward a river never still
on western shore, a sycamore
with cambered arms above
a rotting barge
now partially submerged
its fists of iron, fierce, forgotten
a century’s inventions slurred
Oblivious, this boy he’s playing
dodging tables on the green
wields his bow across the water
shoots an arrow from its string
RIVER GLOSSARY OF ENCHANTMENT
I learned about “Glossaries of Enchantment” from British naturalist and writer Robert Macfarlane. By listing and sharing these specialized words for landscape and nature, others can become more familiar with them, thereby protecting them from falling out of our vocabulary.
freshwater tidal marsh
broadleaf spatterdock
pickerel weed
arrow leaf
rosette-leaved aquatics
mud plantain
narrowleaf cattail
river bulrush butter weed
wild rice
blue flag
bur-reed shoal
water hemp
sedges estuary
joe-pye-weed
sneezeweed
spotted jewel weed
false pimpernel
monkey flowers
yellow iris
bittercress sand flats dredge spoils
fresh water intertidal mudflat
