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THE PHANTOM VIEW OF BATTERY STEELE

How would it be to schlep up to Portland
From Brooklyn, before the Eisenhower
Interstate Highways? Eh. Depends

On whether you had binoculars
And could see the ghostly word Erie
Unsilhouetted atop the legible Lackawanna.

Camouflage in the computer room,
Mufti on the piers. The building
Of the big gun took two months,

And when they fired it for the first time,
All the windows on the island broke at once.
L'chaim! they laughed in the bunker.

With the binoculars, that is, everything
The northeast corridor is good for
Is yours. What, you never heard it called

America's Riviera? They fired them often.
The vogue for tanning came early up there,
Though the mosquitos were awful,

And if you wanted to swim,
Try a lake. The rocks'd break your head
Without noticing. Good skipping stones,

And the lobstermen hemmed in
By the mines now and again
Would give us an okay rate. In this diagram

You can see where the men on duty kept watch,
Where the analysts sat, and the thickness
Of the dirt on top of the embankments. Thick.

You think we're scared now, imagine
Deciding whether a seal's a submarine.
All right, enough of this horseshit.

It's pretty up there, and the people
Are the same as the rest of America now.
Can you imagine the winters, though?