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Extraordinarily Ordinary Ferry
By Don Iannone

I had no real choice
in the matter,
I was born--
in Martins Ferry,
a fiesty factory town
along the Mighty Ohio,
Having been away for a while,
I've arrived at my own
way of understanding
the chemistry of...Ferry,
as we called the place as kids,
And so, what is that?
Finding the extraordinary
in the ordinary,
Yep, that's what Ferry was
all about then, and
most likely that's what
the place is still all about,
It explains the competing
forces shaping my own
extraordinarily ordinary life--
my industrious obsession
with my work and making it,
my whimsical desire to be
a mystical bum in search
of life's deeper meaning,
my sometimes unexpected naiveté
about people and the world,
and yes,
my thirst to write poetry
when I really should be
finishing a business proposal for a client,
The place touched me early on,
when I was most impressionable,
I tried to out run it for a long time,
Now, I try to make the most of it,
I guess that's why
I'll join a gathering of poets in Ferry
tonight, and listen to their
extraordinary words about the ordinary.

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