Zócalo Public SquareThe Fountain of My Youth – Zócalo Public Square https://legacy.zocalopublicsquare.org Ideas Journalism With a Head and a Heart Mon, 21 Oct 2024 07:01:54 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 The Fountain of My Youth https://legacy.zocalopublicsquare.org/2015/03/13/the-fountain-of-my-youth/chronicles/poetry/ https://legacy.zocalopublicsquare.org/2015/03/13/the-fountain-of-my-youth/chronicles/poetry/#respond Fri, 13 Mar 2015 07:01:57 +0000 by Cecilia Rodríguez Milanés https://legacy.zocalopublicsquare.org/?p=58974 On the way to a new life in
la Florida
we made a stop in Saint Augustine
oldest city in our America
A side trip to visit la
Fortaleza de San Marcos
the striped lighthouse
cobblestoned plaza
and of course
Ponce de Leon’s Fountain of Youth A teenager, I didn’t want youth
I wanted the age when I would
be free
Go out and stay out
long as the night
Drive, drink, drink and drive
The unearned freedom of adults
Still it was intriguing …
Could the waters restore,
Preserve, rejuvenate? Fantasy, history, myth
emblazoned on billboards
I remember a long narrow lane
shaded by strange, massive trees
their canopy touching overhead
Spanish moss making mysterious
the old roadside attraction
Everything old
A crumbling, putrid well
No fountain at all
Was de …

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]]> On the way to a new life in
la Florida
we made a stop in Saint Augustine
oldest city in our America
A side trip to visit la
Fortaleza de San Marcos
the striped lighthouse
cobblestoned plaza
and of course
Ponce de Leon’s Fountain of Youth

A teenager, I didn’t want youth
I wanted the age when I would
be free
Go out and stay out
long as the night
Drive, drink, drink and drive
The unearned freedom of adults
Still it was intriguing …
Could the waters restore,
Preserve, rejuvenate?

Fantasy, history, myth
emblazoned on billboards
I remember a long narrow lane
shaded by strange, massive trees
their canopy touching overhead
Spanish moss making mysterious
the old roadside attraction
Everything old
A crumbling, putrid well
No fountain at all
Was de Leon as disappointed as I?

The post The Fountain of My Youth appeared first on Zócalo Public Square.

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