Yountakah Country, a Poetic View of Nutley

YOUNTAKAK COUNTRY

A Poetic View of Nutley Old and New

By Anthony Buccino

Local writer takes some history, some folk lore and some current news and mixes them together in this humorous and thoughtful collection of verse about the little town in north eastern Essex County. On these pages, Anthony Buccino brings together the Lenni Lenape, Annie Oakley and pizza wars.

Over The Back Fence

Available on Amazon, covers vary

covers vary by edition

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VALIUM BREEZE

VALIUM BREEZE

On a breezy day in the northwest corner
of our town you could smell
the vitamins cooking across the road.
Nowadays you see the modern buildings,
sky high and full of workers.

But a hundred years ago
in that very same clearing, the circus
settled in and dear Miss Annie Oakley
came to town by train and practiced
shooting in the pre-Valium breeze.
And they named a nearby street after her

Not too long ago, though,
we didn’t need the Valley of the Dolls
all we had to do was breathe
and we’d either get our
recommended daily supply
of 12 wonder vitamins
or a buzz so loud
we’d duck the invisible bees.

But nowadays, kid, it’s all changed.
The baffles clean the air before
it leaves the chimney
and the smokestack, they say,
is so clean you could eat off it.

- By Anthony Buccino
From YOUNTAKAH COUNTRY A Poetic View Of Nutley Old And New

Copyright © 2010 by Anthony Buccino, all rights reserved. Photos and content may not be used for commercial purposes without written permission.
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INDIAN TRADERS

INDIAN TRADERS

Just a few hundred years ago
in the thick green undergrowth
where the Yanticaw Creek
meets the wide old Passaic River
the fish surrendered by jumping
into hollowed dugout canoes.

From the banks of Delawanna
to the overhang at Brookdale Park
wampum changed hands
in peace and prosperity for generations.

The people, the True People, Lenni Lenape,
celebrated the yantacaw,
a thanksgiving feast – long before
the other people called Pilgrims
celebrated – a bountiful feast
with like people from up north
who brought exotic furs and canoes
and traded with southern natives
for salt fish and seashells.

- By Anthony Buccino
From YOUNTAKAH COUNTRY A Poetic View Of Nutley Old And New
Copyright © 2010 by Anthony Buccino, all rights reserved. Photos and content may not be used for commercial purposes without written permission.
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OVERLOOK

On the street named Overlook
many years ago, a decade or two or so
somebody’s little brother, or maybe
It was somebody’s little sister,
drowned in a family pool when
everyone thought someone else
was watching and nobody was.

The street is set on the
terrace side of a High Street hill,
you see, with houses higher
on one side than the other.
The low side yards back
Spring Garden School and field.
A hidden walkway prevails
& school children walked the path
for decades back and yet to come.
You walk the street now and hear
the children play and there’s hardly
A thought, and certainly no plaque
For that drowned little boy, or girl.

-- Copyright © 2010 by Anthony Buccino, all rights reserved.

BROOKDALE SODA

Who could wait to drive
the family sedan or wagon
to the Brookdale soda depot
on 6th Street or Sylvan?
Empty cases in the trunk
Scooting through tree-lined streets
To the back yard driveway off
Sylvan Avenue in Bloomfield
or the Allwood Circle.
Or downtown at Heller/Heller
on Franklin Avenue.
Grab a hand cart
and an empty case
Splintering wood
and later dark-blue plastic
Go through the stacks
of cases and fill them:

Birch beer – two or three,
kola, cream,
pale dry ginger ale, Cheers.
don’t forget quinine, too.
Blood red cherry and cherry-pit,
another birch
and fill it out with root beer,
more Kola, too
and orange soda, cream,
and bright green lemon-lime
Life never got
any better than this,
and we wouldn’t know
that for a long while

- By Anthony Buccino
Copyright © 2010 by Anthony Buccino, all rights reserved.
Memories of Brookdale Soda

Book covers

Most of the poems on this site have been collected in one or more of the following books.

Copyright © 2010 by Anthony Buccino, all rights reserved. Photos and content may not be used for commercial purposes without written permission.