Nathan Resnick-Day
Pittsburgh I've given you all and now I'm nothing.
I've been frozen stiff for four months and have no more blankets.
I get out of bed in the morning and slip because the floor is frozen.
Pittsburgh when will you melt?
Where do all of these cracked roads lead to, anyway?
Pittsburgh you should have a doctor take a look at that.
It's not 1890 anymore.
I don't like Andy Warhol.
Pittsburgh I once climbed to the top of a mountain at 3 in the morning and took my socks
off and the air tasted like Tahiti and everything smelled holy and my brother ate
his fingers like a guitar and tossed pennies off the ledge and the man with the
abstract saxophone didn't know what to say when we told him where we were
from.
Pittsburgh you need to calm down.
You should stop smoking.
We should solidarity some time.
Let's have a candlelight vigil over at my place.
The bill's on me.
Pittsburgh when will you bounce?
When will you keel over?
Go ahead, sink into the Allegheny, I don't care.
Let your skyscrapers grow algae; letıs see the USX Tower get green.
Pittsburgh what happened to photosynthesis?
I've been rained on so much I think I'm permanently soaked.
Pittsburgh will you shut up I'm trying to sleep.
Pittsburgh get rid of those horrible trains.
Shut down the highways.
Arrest yourself.
Pittsburgh I talk behind your back.
Frankly I'm plotting your death, if you want to know.
Screw Heinz.
Pittsburgh I grew up in the bosom of your hills and used to look up to you when the sun
shined and taste your sidewalks and climb your trees and whisper in your ear and
know birds on a first name basis and all but things have changed.
Pittsburgh when will you turn off the lights?
When will you let the stars shine?
When will you wake up?
Pittsburgh I flew across the world one night in my pajamas and the wind whistled in my
ears like a reluctant soldier named Fitzgerald and I saw yaks migrating thousands
of feet below and millions of pears sprouting up like warts and my athletes foot
began to itch.
Pittsburgh maybe it's all my fault.
Pittsburgh I am Holden Caulfield.
I am Mook.
Maybe I should make Aliyah.
What am I doing here in Eastern Europe anyway?
I'm not Amish.
Pittsburgh I am the Old Man and the Sea.
Pittsburgh I is learning.
I'm proud to be an American.
Copyright (c) 2004 by Nathan Resnick-Day
The poet studies with Kristin Kovacic at CAPA, Pittsburgh Public Schools'
Creative and Performing Arts secondary school.