The Newtown Pentacle

A catch all index page for postings on Mount Zion Cemetery. Title links will open entire post in a new window.

Mt. Zion 1 – imps of the perverse

- photo by Mitch Waxman

What would appear to be a Jewish section of the vast funerary complex that is 2nd and 3rd Calvary Cemeteries, is actually a distinct cemetery organized as and referred to as Mount Zion.

It made a convenient hiding spot for me one day when a group of children on Maurice Avenue took notice of me and began to follow me around. The possibility of some vaguely malign intention toward me, on their part, caused a near faint and I ran away- here’s what happened.

Narrow, juvenile faces, their appearance and aspect were dominated by a toothy grimace- much wider than the usual proportion- and oddly jowled chins. The corners of their mouths stretched to mid cheek and passed well beyond the bulging center point of those widely set and unblinking milky blue eyes- which I attribute to the possibly mutagenic qualities of the chemical pollution of that nearby extinction of hope called the Newtown Creek.

A little girl amongst them, barefoot and carrying a polydactyl calico which was buzzing with attention, pointed me out and all the other odd looking children turned and stared in my direction. A vast physical coward, and unable to withstand even the thought of defending myself against  a crowd of 10 year olds, your humble narrator screamed a shrill shriek and broke into a clumsy run to make an escape to hallowed ground.

Mt Zion 2 - Palaces of Light

- photo by Mitch Waxman

Seeking to avoid the infantile menace of the odd and possibly mutated Maspeth children whose appearance filled him with an unguessable sense memory of pure terror, your humble narrator hurriedly entered the incredible locale of Mount Zion Cemetery. Located analagously to the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Calvary Cemeteries, Mount Zion is 78 acres and holds a staggering 210,000 interments.

There are a few mausoleums here, but nowhere close to the multitudinous monuments found in nearby Calvary in number or ostentatious quality- however- the remarkably detailed metalwork on the doors of the Katcher monument demand notice and consideration from passersby. Click the photo below and check out the larger incarnations of it at our flickr page for a lot of detail.

Mt Zion 3- threading precipitous lanes

- photo by Mitch Waxman

Awakening from my “very bad idea” induced faint, here on Path Number 13 in Mount Zion cemetery, your humble narrator was buoyed by the fact that only one hour of his life was lost to that timidity and cowardice with which he is cursed. A quick scan of the Maurice Avenue fences revealed that the sinister (and possibly mutant) children were still gathered along the rusted balustrade forming the cemetery’s border- were they waiting for me to quit this hallowed ground that they seemed to be unable to step upon? They were dancing in a circle around that girl with the hatefully polydactyl cat.

Mt Zion 4- A Lurid Shimmering of Pale Light

- photo by Mitch Waxman

Befuddled by the sing song chantie evinced by those horrible children, in whose frog like faces your humble narrator found some nameless dread and whose terrible attention initiated his flight into sylvan Mount Zion, I wandered in a haze of unknowable panic through the 72 acre graveyard. Notions of familiar aspect- the smiling face of “our Lady of the Pentacle”, the friendly greeting of my little dog- Zuzu- kept me grounded and allowed me to ignore some of the macabre details of the landscape. Crazed, however, my racing thoughts began to tangentially ruminate…

Mt Zion 5- Sunken Houses of Sleep

- photo by Mitch Waxman

Steeling myself for the inevitable humiliating encounter with those oddly menacing children who seemed to be waiting for my reemergence on Maurice Avenue, I moved down the hill from the 58th street side of the burial grounds.

Older than my years, vast psychological inadequacies and shameful physical “episodes” render your humble narrator a helpless emotional cripple. Even the thought of direct confrontation with that which may exist around the Newtown Creek- or because of it- is enough to make me lightheaded and coat my skin in cold sweat. Staying out of sight, I broke into a dogtrot instead of my usual scuttle, and continued along the central artery of Mount Zion Cemetery. On the hill is the DSNY’s gargantuan Queens West Garage complex and an accompanying garbage incinerator.

Mount Zion 6-  Crystal Oblivion

- photo by Mitch Waxman

Awakening from the dead faint which had ended my ruminations on those oppressions suffered by both Jew and Roma in a war torn exemplar of peasant ignorance and malign oligarchy which is the European Peninsula, your humble narrator noticed the gloaming of late afternoon settling upon the centenarian graveyard and realized that one way or another- an escape must be hazarded from the oblivion of Mount Zion cemetery if I ever desired to return to the yellow brick lanes of Astoria.