They keep making it more and more expensive
to live here
with costs and taxes,
then wonder why the kids finish school
and move away.
They wonder why so many older people
sell out and move away.
Sad to see how the area has gotten so very frayed
at the edges,
and how many rips and tears there are around,
where there were never any holes before.
What does it say when even the new lottery millionaires
Move away, leave the state…?
What does that say about the state of New York?
Officials are elected to office to take care of things,
to take care of the citizens…
but do they do that?
They make a great show of trying
to look like they are trying,
but bottom line,
no, they do not do that.
They have power and prestige and position,
and they “are someone,”
but they are not someone who truly cares
or does much to raise the populace up.
There are more and more unemployed,
more and more homeless,
more and more who cannot afford simple things —
a full tank of gas, sufficient food in the fridge,
proper medical care…
This, in one of the famed “best” states in the country?
Maybe once it was….
but not any more.
You know the saddest thing that I have to think about?
I cannot afford to move away, or I would.
Since I am stuck here,
one day I will die here,—
I will die in Binghamton, New York,
and I am unable to think of anything
as depressing as that fact.
I went downtown once,
and I walked around,
and I guess I spent about a week that afternoon.
Binghamton is not what it once was.
Not even close.
Eventually the whole area,
like so many other areas,
like myself, eventually,
will die, and not even get a decent burial.
It will just be covered over by all the grit and grime
that dead communities attract, everywhere.
This town already has one foot in the grave as it is.
I grew up here,
and I mourn for the here that was once there.

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Copyright©2017-1999 by Rebecca R. Hammack

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