the distance between two points in poetry

I often think on how much of my personal culture
is based on growing up during Early Cable Days
when it was just the local network channels and
the three New York City independent superstations
I had more New York City channels than I did
from Utica or Syracuse or anywhere else nearby
I thought Manhattan was just south of Albany
I wondered why Goya Oh-Boya wasn’t at the store
why there were no Carvel Ice Cream shops around
why I couldn’t eat Fudgie the Whale or Cookiepuss
why I couldn’t go to the Young Peoples’ Daycamp
with the big yellow smiley-face ads that played
in between the innings of the New York Mets games
we had a Canadian channel here from Kingston too
half of the childrens’ shows I watched were there
on the CBC from across the Saint Lawrence River
I still reflexively spell fibre with an “re”
I still spell colour and honour with a “u”
in college, people would call me out on it
“oh do you think you’re British like Madonna?”
no it’s just that the Early Cable Days
they shaped me for both good and for bad
before the three hundred channels came
and blew out the whole fucking game