In The Beginning

The house we lived in on Lanza Avenue. Our apartment was on the second floor.

The prompt for the Chatham Memoir Group was “Beginnings”. I heard the Emerson, Lake & Palmer song, “From the Beginning”, playing somewhere. Thinking about my earliest memories and where we lived at the time, I began to string some lines together in my mind.

In the Beginning – Lanza Avenue

Ernie Stricsek©

There are some things I can recall

Fire trucks screaming by

Sirens and lights new to my eye

We sit on the basement steps

The landlord nods with a smile

He shovels coal from a pile

Fragments in my mind

In my mind I can see

When it was my mom, dad and just me

In the beginning

Classical music on the phonograph

Hunters searching the woods

Peter catching the wolf

I jump and leap to an Offenbach tune

There’s a knock on the door

The landlord tells us no more

In my mind I can see

When it was my mom, dad and just me

In the beginning

Across the street looms Saint Stan’s Church

The bells sounding loud

The colorful crowd

I remember the bassinet

First with my brother Ken

Then my brother Dave

In my mind I can see

A family larger than three

Memories of the beginning

11 thoughts on “In The Beginning

    1. Thank you Tirzah! Glad you enjoyed it. I don’t write much poetry, but when I do, it’s usually because I’ve heard a song I like and I start to string together lines of poetry.

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  1. Hi Ernie,

    Your memories brought back a few personal ones. One is being five years old and standing on the back of the rocking chair while my mother gave my brother his bottle. Time has flown.

    Nancy

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