One of the coolest things that has changed in Chicago in recent years is the proliferation of street gardens, both in yards and in the planting strip between the sidewalk and street. Lots of folks grow native plants, prairie plants, flowers to attract butterflies and bees... On Michigan Avenue there are big planting strips with spectacular plants, monarch butterflies -- I've seen huge dragonflies zooming over the traffic. When I was a kid those strips were basically grass, mulberry trees, and dog crap. It's exciting to see the potential of the "city in a garden,"
Urbs in Horto, coming to fruition.
Allen Ginsberg wrote in 1975 "Written on Hotel Napkin: Chicago Futures";
Wind mills churn on Windy City's
rooftops Antennaie
collecting electric
above thick-loamed gardens
on Playboy Tower
Merchandise Mart's compost
privies
supply nightsoil for Near North Side's
back gardens...
...
bathtub beer like the old days
Backyard Mary Jane like
old days...
* * *
and see, it's all coming true!
