Nocturne
1.
Misty night mountain, moon-shines through the cloud seams— an old man walks alone and thinks
“You holy night, soon it will be over I will sleep the longer sleep, sleep softly in the midnight breezes while her sad last death leans towards me”
Sleeping pills knocked him out at night kept him dazed in the day Northeast winds, rocky wine-dark seas
“I see the nocturnal wily jaguars I seek the fierce white tiger in me Death is not the cruelest way to lose someone you love”
2.
His mind knows what to do but he doesn’t do it Tough sun today, high skies...
“An ancient tribe—at night some take him out hunting where no one else can see They push him off a slick icy cliff and happily cleanse themselves of this liar”
He was the one who arranged all meetings and engagements, always in public places where he could gracefully escape
“His tilted head, his tired face, the tense thick movements of his hands, all assert that he listens to his own taut voice and can barely hear another”
3.
She said I talk too loud in restaurants the way we Jews always do The old dear thing had one WASP chin too many
“These words share no secrets— they’re just prayers to the bitchy slick goddess... Days of decadence, quicksilver fragile affections, heightened senses—incapable of love or hate”
Got him his sandwich—an individual can of tuna with the oil drained, lettuce and tomato on a roll—tried it myself once—not bad
“I don’t remember our last violin lesson but I remember him telling me of his plans to retire to Southern California—It’s just like Italy, he said, it’s like going back to Florence”
4.
The horror is that cruelty and indifference thrived where there should have been love, like Rumanian orphans who have never been touched
“The real diva was a sensational bore Unlike her re-creation on stage, that actress who brazenly puffs up her name Colorful fun tattoos like scars, up and down her wrinkled arms In life she can’t play the part”
When a squirrel jumps up from a garbage pail with squinty rodent eyes, and thinning brown hairs I don’t care, but rats do alarm me
“Morally ambiguous, ruthless Her tastes crude, her passions cold, said nothing then, because all talk is useless Her sore face bruised by his death”
-July 22, 2011-