Write Your Block

Tuesday Night Darts at O’Jung’s (Pennsport)

Mapping Philadelphia, one poem at a time

Write Your Block

Tuesday Night Darts at O’Jung’s (Pennsport)

Mapping Philadelphia, one poem at a time

Frank Sherlock, former Philadelphia Poet Laureate, created Write Your Block as a way for Philadelphians to explore their neighborhoods via poetry, charting—and sharing—their communities through their own words. The result: A map of Philadelphia that is not rivers and parks and streets, but ideas and memories and dreams for neighborhoods through the people who know them best. Below, one such poem, from one Philadelphian.

Submit your own neighborhood poem here.

Tuesday Night Darts at O’Jungs (Pennsport)
by John Cassidy
Hank Henry sat on his beach chair,

parked near the street curb,

unthreading a tie.

Squinting, a Pall Mall stuck to his lip,

he watched the ambulance creep by.

“That’s the third time this month,

that new apartment complex,

had someone go bottom up,”

Hank Henry thought to himself

and took a thick swig of whiskey

(he’d mixed with diet pepsi

swirled in a big gulp

he filled at the 7-11 by the bus stop

and combined in the bathroom

a bottle produced from his pocket

and emptied).

He felt stealthy.

Hank Henry harrumphed and let his mind wander to darts.

“In just a few hours, the B-Team championship starts.”

Header Photo: Google Maps

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