Our own resident poet and executive board member, Ilene Bauer, had her poem Seltzer Bottles published in the Metropolitan Diary section of yesterday's N Y Times.
SELTZER BOTTLES
SELTZER BOTTLES
Near the street where I reside,
And glancing at it, visions of my past
It does provide.
For it contains two seltzer bottles,
Spritzers facing in.
I wonder if my childhood home
Is one place they have been.
For growing up in Brooklyn,
Seltzer bottles we would get,
Delivered in a wooden box,
Along with one U-Bet.
To make a perfect egg cream,
You put U-Bet in a glass.
Your mom said, “Just a little!”
An amount you would surpass.
On top of all that syrup,
You’d add milk, but just a splash.
Then you’d squirt the seltzer in
And mix it in a flash.
Voilà! The bubbles burbled as
From bottom up they rose;
And as you sipped, you always got
A tickle on your nose.
The seltzer in the stores now
Doesn’t have that wicked squirt.
If you could taste the difference,
Why, I’m sure you would convert.
So when I see those bottles,
I begin to reminisce;
And seltzer joins the list of things
From childhood that I miss.
Ilene Bauer
