It is so beautiful, so beautiful, O it is the place to be,
On a day in May on the national mall in Washington, D.C.
Smell of grass, bus exhaust, fried fish, and old gym shoes.
Buses parked all along Constitution and Independence
Avenues.
Teachers yelling, Kids laughing, jaywalking.
Harleys beep and the bikers curse.
And distant sirens, and air brakes, and vehicles beeping
when driven in reverse.
The distant carousel music on the wind,
And someone scratching on a violin.
Girls playing catch with a red plastic disc
On the lawn by the Washington Monument obelisk.
Bikers on their Harleys with silver pipes and decals of
devils and flames
Looking at that shiny black wall with 57,000 names.
Bikers in black vests weeping by the wall taking pictures
reverently
"I got one of you now will you take one of me?"
And nearby an evangelist preaching about the Lord whom
we should fear
Before the world ends, perhaps even this year.
Women in white t-shirts with something written on the
backs
Go striding by wearing purple visors and purple fanny
packs.
School marching bands in the distance and the sound of
drums
School groups on field trips wearing identical T-shirts
waiting for the bus to come.
Fifty kids in T-shirts with a picture of a Baltimore oriole
Old men in campaign hats being pushed in wheelchairs past
the World War II memorial.
Memorials everywhere, monuments to the Boy Scouts, the
Titanic, Law Enforcement, and of course
In Logan Circle a statue of Major John Logan on his horse.
A park dedicated to Sonny Bono, the Congressman and
pop star.
A statue of a Maine Lobster fisherman catching a lobster.
People jogging, power walking, biking, pass
Bus drivers sitting outside their buses on the grass.
People talking in German, Spanish, Indian, French, Arabic,
and Russian,
An ongoing international perambulating discussion.
All along the National Mall, the long line of runners goes
Some look like they wanted an excuse to take off their
clothes.
Two girls with ponytails go by.
One says: "Tuesday we went to happy hour and had a really
nice time, not gonna lie."
A cop on a bicycle stops to tell the teenagers to get off that
ledge and take a hike
And loses his balance and falls off his bike.
Pigeons everywhere walking unafraid.
I shall get me a cup of lemonade
And a frozen yogurt from one of the FroYo trucks:
Six ounces for five bucks,
With 2 toppings; I choose mocha chips and Captain Crunch
As I watch a bunch
Of high school kids on parade.
Boys with backward baseball caps, girls with shorts and
tops and their belly buttons nicely displayed.
O this is where I'd be under the blue sky
Watching America go by
On Memorial Day
At the end of May.