Walking Down Park

Throughout “Walking Down Park,” the speaker asks readers if they ever wonder what America was like before colonization. The speaker starts by asking what “[three major streets] looked like before [they were] avenue[s]” (Line 5), before there were roads in general, and before the grass was rolled up into a “ball” (Line 17) and called Central Park. The speaker is asking readers to consider what life was like before the arrival of Europeans. At the same time, asking this question draws attention to Europeans and the changes they made. The speaker does not draw a picture of life prior to colonization, but she does interrogate the effects and proof of that colonization and offer an alternative view.

The speaker describes the environment not as it was but as it is now, with the “syphilitic dogs / and their two-legged tubercular / masters” (Lines 19-21). She acknowledges Times Square—calling it “time’s squares” (Line 30)—and the grass rolled “into a ball and called / […] central park” (Lines 17-18). These descriptions suggest that the speaker is asking the reader to imagine a world prior to colonization despite being unable to undo the effects of colonization she sprinkles in throughout the poem.

One of the biggest thematic concerns in the poem is just how much the landscape is recognizable due to how it has changed, and the poem suggests that colonizers intentionally used so much asphalt to cover up the memory of Indigenous tribes.