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From Battery To Belt
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On Trips As I turn my wipers off going down Kennedy
I am tempted to go back towards those guiding lights
A flash in the distance signals to me that the road opens up soon
But traffic ahead isn't budging at all
Barely any hope
Barely any room
So, u-turn I go at the next overpass
I want to return to my red apple
My element
My aesthetic
Where everybody knows my name
And everybody still treats me the same
As I go back towards the mouth of Lincoln
To choose between the FDR or the Joey D.
To get back to that place, oh how safe I felt
To get the Battery to the Belt
As I dry off the tears from my windshield
As Lincoln finally throws me back up, I'm reunited with my red apple
Home of the Parkway that runs as fast as Jackie did back in the day
Where the Far really means Rockaway
Where The Mott always in your Avenue
And no matter how many times you change it the channel remains broad
As I work my way past the glitz and glammer and the chit chatter
I meet another president
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Except, he was comprised of 6 lanes of shimmering lights
So, I join them
Zoom! At the speed of those lights, I go right passed Midtown
Right through a neighborhood named after a friend of mine...yes, I mean you Chelsea
To where the Canal in China somehow wound up on this really huge Island, or is it a city?
Tap the brakes as my exit comes up
Time to get a new pack of AA's? Nah, this is a different kind of Battery
Filled with an orange glimmer as I drive into the tunnel
Sunkist lights zooming right by
Looks like I'm driving right through a Fanta bottle
With a hint of green to let me know that it's safe to go ahead
2 lanes
2 by 2
35 to stay alive
Except, it's different
I know where I am going
They know that I am coming
Orange lights turn into moonlight as I enter the land of the Kings
Ordinarily, I'd Keep left to get the so-called expressway to Queens
But something in the distance still shimmers
The road home
As I head towards the buckle of this parkway, I can do nothing but smile
I see familiar faces
Familiar names, Hamilton, Sheapshead, Coney, Verrazano
And then I see this one name in the distance, Avenue Pennsylvania
I call it, I run towards it
I take the offramp
As I slow to a crawl, I realize
I'm home
Will I miss the days on the road?
Most certainly I will
Will there be another journey?
There has to be
Life itself is a journey
But right now, I will stick to the streets that I know
I will remain with the Kings that watch over me
As I remember the good times and the happiness I felt
I'll tell my kids one day
What brought me home was the Battery to the Belt
