Whatever Became of the Old Medicine Factory?

Whatever Became of the Old Medicine Factory?

Walking down my old Flushing Avenue, Williamsburg, Brooklyn

The day was not long enough for me

Not to see what became

Of what remained

Of the forbidden zone of old buildings

Of loading docks that stunk of chemicals

(I now realize those pigeons were brave

to nest under the skyway, now long gone)

And of a building many years ago

Wedged at the corner of Flushing and Gerry

Torn down, my father saying, because

"It was poison in there."

I wondered at a young age

Why it was left bare

Why couldn't they make it a playground?

So years after inhaling poison

As I walked to school

I see their office house

Turned into a charter school

And a playground over and beyond the spot

I once thought there would be one

In a place I would not send any child,

Never mind my own

© Ángel L. Martínez

15 September 08