NaPoWriMo, Day Eleven: “Long Island Iced Tea”

Dan Gualtieri
1 min readApr 12, 2024

Long Island Iced Tea

You drink wine with your friend
from New York and sense

the old heat and noise. The city
always treated you well, but

you still ache a little at memories
of heavy bags on the subway,

the need to be somewhere always
slightly far away. You savored,

always, the view of the sprawl
from your airplane seats,

the illusion that this expanse,
every kind of person and thing

laid out before you in tableau
could be mixed into one glass,

drunk down in sweet triumph
without overwhelming.

Thanks for reading! April is National Poetry Writing Month, and this year I’m writing and publishing a poem each day titled after (and sort of, sometimes, about) a cocktail. My 2019–2023 NaPoWriMo poems (about crossword clues, food, GIFs, the Fast and Furious movies, and car insurance) are here on Medium, so check out my profile if you want more.

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Dan Gualtieri

I’m just this guy, you know? Senior UX Designer at CoverMyMeds. Poet.