Freedom Trail, Oh Freedom Trail

Freedom Trail, oh Freedom Trail

Here’s where the road starts homeward

To be near the family close to heart

With unconditional love and empathy

I can hear them welcoming me

But before I leave Taiwan this time

I need a reminder of why I came

To override the bitterness and blame

Here, in Chiayi between Taichung and Tainan

Straddling the Tropic of Cancer

Is the Taiwan time forgot

A small city, quiet and unobtrusive

Framed by waving lawns of green rice

Slow with an easy simplicity of farmers

Tufts of grass growing wild near a gully

Banana trees spreading wide leaves unattended

Happy dogs unleashed barking outside free

In a space of fresh air in fragrant breeze

This is the Taiwan I will remember

On Freedom Trail a forgotten dream recalled

To the countryside common

i sing in harmony with the birds

Ah-ma from a dirt path here with greens to sell

Off a bench near the route of sugarcane trains

The whistle of the local at a distant grade crossing

And look up to see ah-ma’s attracted old friends

Making this Brooklyn boy feel lonelier

Unfamiliar to them yet friendlier

Not permitting me to feel alone

Not at home yet welcomed in their own

Where Mandarin is as foreign as English

Is the crossroad that takes me back home

Somewhere down the line around a curve

Two rails are ridden in one direction

Far from Formosa to the last stop on a train

Where all routes end in Coney Island

April 23, 2021

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