Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times In Ortley Beach, NJ, many homes still await repairs, including those owned by half the guests at Kathie and Jim Watson’s party on Sunday. Go to related article »We mark the last Poetry Pairing of the school year with “The Gulf, 1987? by Deborah Paredez and the article “New Summer for Shore Residents, but Not as Before” by Peter Applebome.
After reading the poem and article, tell us what you think — or suggest other Times content that could be matched with the poem instead.
Deborah Paredez, a performer, theater scholar and award-winning poet, is the co-founder of CantoMundo, a national organization for Latino poets. She is also an associate professor of English at the University of Texas at Austin. In addition to writing poetry, Ms. Paredez has written about the singer Selena, the film “Real Women Have Curves” and the show “Ugly Betty.”
The Gulf, 1987
By Deborah Paredez
The day upturned, flooded with sunlight, not
a single cloud. I squint into the glare,
cautious even then of bright emptiness.
We sit under shade, Tía Lucia
showing me how white folks dine, the high life.
I am about to try my first oyster,
Tía spending her winnings from the slots
on a whole dozen, the glistening valves
wet and private as a cheek’s other side,
broken open before us. Don’t be shy.
Take it all in at once. Flesh and sea grit,
sweet meat and brine, a taste I must acquire.
In every split shell, the coast’s silhouette:
bodies floating in what was once their home.
In “New Summer for Shore Residents, but Not as Before,” Peter Applebome writes about the Jersey Shore at the start of its first post-Hurricane Sandy summer season:
ORTLEY BEACH, N.J. — In any other year, Uncle Mike said, it is the Kickoff Classic, the first weekend of the summer when seasonal and year-round residents roam Fourth Avenue like amiable vagrants who have just emerged from hibernation, stopping in to say hi, hanging out on one another’s porches, strolling the Boardwalk, checking out the beach.
The adults make their pilgrimage to Joey Harrison’s Surf Club for liquid refreshment and sightseeing. Children head for the arcade games and miniature golf at Barnacle Bill’s.
But on this first Memorial Day Weekend since Hurricane Sandy, the kickoff began more like the squibbed variety, the weather gloomy and crowds thin. The pilgrimage had to be to one of the bars in Seaside Heights because the Surf Club is still a beachfront ruin, hoping to return next summer. The giant fiberglass Barnacle Bill lies on its back awaiting resurrection when the golf course is repaired, perhaps by July 4. The Ortley Boardwalk is not back yet. There is not much beach.
Still, seven months after Hurricane Sandy tore Fourth Avenue and much of the Jersey Shore to shreds, Ortley and the rest of the shore are caught somewhere between awe at what has been accomplished and frustration at what has not, contemplating a recovery that probably has years to go.
… On one lot there is nothing but a beached fishing boat. Next to it is a mountain of rubble where a house once stood. Some houses tilt at unnatural angles awaiting demolition; others sit forlorn and deserted like Walker Evans Depression-era portraits.
About 20 houses stood before the storm. Now only three are habitable — three and a half if you count half of the two-family beach house Uncle Mike, a contractor and the bard of Fourth Avenue, is rebuilding with his cousin Pete Rizzuto.
“You look out our back door, and there’s devastation all around. It still looks like a bomb hit it,” said Mr. Rizzuto, speaking by telephone from his office in Cedar Knolls, N.J. “The house isn’t done, so I don’t have a reason to go right now. I don’t really want to see it.”
Still, he and Uncle Mike, whose real name is Mike Pedano, hope to be back by July 4. And Mr. Pedano figures things could be a lot worse. “We’re blessed,” he said. “I’m not frustrated at all. I always said that this was going to take three to five years, and I’m still sticking to that.”
“The Gulf, 1987? appeared in the September 2012 issue of Poetry.
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