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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Voices on the Bus

VOICES ON THE BUS
train, subway, sidewalk and
in my head

by Anthony Buccino

Verse  about commuting in Northern New Jersey.

Feel the rhythm of the rails as you travel the last days of the Newark City Subway, or the PATH, and be relieved you are not present to hear the Preacher Man or Mr. Tourette's but do listen for the noise above the hum of the wheels and turn your ear to the voices on the bus, train or standing nearby on the platform.

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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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SNOW DAY

In the old days, before the Internet
and all those useless cable TV channels,
after we’d cleared sidewalks and drive
and it looked like we’d be snowed in
for a while, or until the town plows
came rumbling past a time more or two
we’d walk down the hill, sliding & laughing
to Radcliffe Deli & buy a stack
of magazines & food treats – and milk, too,

to help us endure our cabin fever.
Sometimes we’d take the dog there
and tie her leash to the fire plug – or
a drainpipe or something secure.
The walk home in the fresh fallen snow
uphill on fresh-plowed streets – man,
that was Christmas-card perfect.

- By Anthony Buccino
From Retrieving Labrador Days
Copyright © 2010 by Anthony Buccino, all rights reserved. Photos and content may not be used for commercial purposes without written permission.
******************

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.

BOOTH PARK CAROMS

Behind the bakery,
the former Texaco station
down the wall in the Third River
the ducks await castoff cakes
The geese, and seagulls too,
show up for their dough,
then all,
merrily, merrily, merrily
swim upstream.

Third River runs
through Booth Park
right down the middle,
breaking up
upper Booth Park
from lower Booth Park,
breaking up the wide field
for baseball and soccer
and some sledding, too,
on the high side,
of the Yantacaw Creek
running through
from the lower playground
where once upon
a summer day long, long ago
my cousins and I played caroms
like Minnesota Fats
and Paul Newman’s Hustler.
And there in Booth Park
in 1964 my puppy,
a mongrel mutt named Butch,
lost out the ‘smallest dog contest’
to the Nutley kid,
a favorite and a regular, too.
My cousins cried out, “FIX!” but
my dog and I just went home
across the river that runs through
Booth Park and up the hill
to good old Gless Avenue
in Belleville.

- By Anthony Buccino
From Retrieving Labrador Days

- By Anthony Buccino
From AMERICAN BOY: Pushing Sixty
also appears in Yountakah Country - a poetic view of Nutley old and new
Copyright © 2009-2013 by Anthony Buccino, all rights reserved.

PIZZA WARS OF 2006

Pizza War of 2006
by Anthony Buccino

Only in my town with its open school lunch
Would there be so many pizzerias
Vying for label of Best in Town
You had Ralph’s for a while
Then they stepped aside, to be fair
Until it was time to raise more dough
And Michael’s claimed the prize
With the count it was disputed in the backroom
And two winners emerged with the title
The formerly friendly businessmen
Now engaged in a firm debate
Who puts the best pizza on the plate

It all started so innocuously, innocently, in fact,
For the Jaycees who raised scholarship money
So Nutley’s best and brightest could afford college

So now you have a pizza war
And the tossers’ dispute unsettled
As we wait for the this year’s winners
Have called in the big guns to decide the winner
The League of Women Voters will be overseeing
The pizza wars this year, and they decided
That each person shall have only one vote
The Pizza Challenge they are calling it
This the tenth annual event of pies
When once again Nutley pizzerias will vie

The loser this year, we hear, will
Sleep with the anchovies

- By Anthony Buccino

From the upcoming YOUNTAKAH COUNTRY A Poetic View of Nutley Old and New
Copyright © 2010-2017 by Anthony Buccino, all rights reserved.