'Bold Point'

No, this Bold Point is not
somebody's muscular assertion,

it's just a little neck of land,
--a spit-- a tiny foothold

of grass and sand
and lapping waves,

timidly, it pokes into
the River Providence,


Nighttime haunt
of who knows who,

it cringes, barely noticed,
on a busy city day,

buffeted by roar and whine
of highway traffic;

Magnet for the dreary plastic
residue of progress,

it's gentle beauty stained;

Somehow, it moves us,
now that we have stopped to look,

and so, we stoop

to gather up the pulltabs,
the hypodermic needles,

plastic no-deposit, no-returns,
the tampon applicators,

the diapers, papers, broken glass,
the deathless cups of styrofoam,

and all the random wrappers.

-jorge999

In 2003 on 'Dean Visibility Day' the writer was one of twenty Howard Dean supporters who spent the morning cleaning refuse from the beach at Bold Point Park East Providence Rhode Island.