There is an old poem that sums up, in its sly assessment of two socially prominent families, much of what the world outside of Boston thinks of that somewhat snobbish city, as follows:

And this is good old Boston

The home of the bean and the cod,

Where the Lowells talk to the Cabots,

And the Cabots talk only to God.

Robert Lowell, poet and one of the Boston Lowells.

According to Cleveland Amory's The Proper Bostonians, the four lines were first uttered (in a looser form) as a toast by a "Western man" at a Harvard alumni dinner in 1905, then refined for publication by Dr. John Collins Bossidy of Holy Cross College in Worcester.  Worcester, the perennial second fiddle of Massachusetts, views the social pretensions of Boston with skepticism, as do "Western" men.  Having been a Western man (from Missouri, which was considered the west at the time) and having landed in Worcester when I first came to the East coast, I imbide these antipathies freely.

The Old State House, State and Congress streets, Boston.

Fifty years ago, you couldn't throw a brick at the corner of State and Congress streets in Boston without hitting a man or woman who could recite this poem.  Today, you could throw a Frisbee from the same spot and not come within hailing distance of someone who knows it.

The time has come to move the center of American civic poetry westward and southward, or wherever you may be located, or wherever you are from. 

Your challenge, should you choose to accept it: create a four-line poem for the city of your choice using the same meter and rhyme scheme (a-b-c-b), with a similar opening line.  (The first line of the Boston poem is sometimes rendered as "Here's to good old Boston . . .")

Other rules:

1.  Void where prohibited by law.

2.  You must be 18, or know someone who is 18, in order to enter.

3.  Contestants must possess a valid poetic license in their state of residence.

4.   Play is resumed with a face-off in the defending zone of the team that committed the icing infraction.

The winner will be determined in the sole, absolute and unfettered discretion of the judge (me).  Prize is an autographed copy of my new novel, CannaCorn.  Prizes may not be exchanged for Open Salon "tips", Lexus motor vehicles or other products or services of Open Salon sponsors.

Ladies and gentlemen--start your laptops.