The eight million who live in this bustling space
walk its streets, determined, at a faster pace
than they who settled its swamps in antiquity:
the shellfishing native Unami-speaking Lenape.
Giovanni da Verrazzano was the first European
who sailed across the Atlantic in 1524 seeing
a place he declared as French New Angoulême,
until Dutch fur-traders settled it: New Amsterdam.
Decades later, four frigates demanded surrender
thus beginning a colony of English endeavor.
Patriots declared war blaming kingly taxes on tea.
Enlisted slaves earned personal liberty.
Manhattan was the base of Loyalist operations;
here, Washington’s spies made covert infiltrations
Nathan Hale was hanged proclaiming his eulogy:
“I only regret that I have but one life to give for my country.”
Fresh independence cultivated Edgar Allan Poe
and a novel Central Park for people to grow.
Immigrants angered by Civil War conscription
persecuted black people who moved to Brooklyn.
Steam ships delivered immigrants aplenty.
In 1886 France gifted the Statue of Liberty.
In 1914 Americans feared warring conditions,
so law-makers created immigration restrictions.
The city headquartered most 1920’s corporations;
leading the US in art, finance, and communications.
Progress lapsed as the stock market collapsed,
and colossal skyscrapers arose across the map.
In WWII Brooklyn built the most navy ships.
The NYC economy made a service-based shift.
Though racism lingered in Jim Crow Law evil -
progressive plans brought “Power to the People!”
Wall street flourished with business in 1980.
Meatpacking buildings converted to art-creating.
In 2001, jets slammed the World Trade Center.
And in 2020 this was America's covid epicenter.
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