Kenosha:

A beacon along the lakeshore,

A giant light protects the big boats.

A lighthouse guiding them,greeting them

as the tankers ventured up Lake Michigan

from the City of the Big Shoulders.

Plastic images, waxen forms

When dinosaurs ruled the land.

When Friday nights were for fish and brew

In a dark wood roadhouse,

the famrer's nightclub.

An electric streetcar zooms along,

carrying people downtown

and tourists to the Lakefront.

A seagull hovers over the beach

along an enclosed ocean

in a harbor which carried Nashes

in a day when their manufacture

was the heartbeat of the city.

The tempting lure of fish,

a family's way of life in the brisk lake waters.

Dangerous times, good times.

Milwaukee and Green Bay:

 A streetwise man who coached

young men as thoroughbreds.

A blustery man,

a block of granite from Jersey

still revered for leading the Pack.

Cartoon farm kids whose cows

made the drink of choice

for Spahnie, Eddie and Hammerin' Hank.

On the days when the fish didn't dare make a jump

when the Braves were behind.

Tractors, beer and a Senator:

Once they plowed the farmland,

home of the dairymen,

The orange and blue sputtering teapots

which farmers relied on.

The cutout greets the fairgoers,

the latest in a line of men of the people,

A place in a line from Battling Bob to the Golden Fleece.

In black and white and faded color,

the enticements of a golden liquid,

memories of a day when adult beverages

made the city famous.

Places on a map,

pieces of the past in Badgerland.