have traveled places,

but never a place quite like this.

big lights, big dreams

shoving their way through the crowded

sidewalks where Asian faces greet Irish eyes

and Latino feet walk past African-American

stares.

Painted sidewalks where Italian hands

weave through Arab eyes and where gay expression

catch the attention of straight admirers.  If you can make

if here, you can make it anywhere,

the big apple of freedom beaming down on

Broadway.  But it is reality’s stage where the

real stories are happening.  Shouts and flashing

lights, taking portraits of the moment

while living in the moment.  Young eyes

stare up into the sky where Billboards

overwhelm the aroma of roasted almonds

and the scent of steaming hotdogs.

From a distance the Empire State building

peeks through the night’s fog, and in a distance,

in the middle of the New York Harbor,

the Statue of Liberty is beaming,

inspiring

the true spirit of this big city

where big dreams are colliding inside a diversity of hope.

© 2013

Tarringo T. Vaughan