my thanks go to Nigel
the sickly musical kid
who first got me
to put these words together
make my own lines
I was the roughhouse kid
the out & about’er
& Nigel was the indoors kind
the kid who couldn’t
absent from school
more than he was there
he’d get me to mime along
as he played his guitars & songs
early Beatles hits
derivative Stones & blues
& now he’s married
to a rock star
got them a couple of kids
if you mentioned my name
passed on my thanks
I feel sure
he’d say
who?
no fuss
once a rich mans daughter
talking through a waterfall
or something between us
where I could see her yet
that I could never pierce
get to her close
tho’ we’d done
the between the sheets thing
she was there but not there
which had the irony
this was how it was in LA
when daddy summoned her
to his lonely canyon eyrie
his once upon a time rock star exile
every summer year to sit & listen
how his life was
& she’d fly back first class
clutching a fat plushy bear
& nothing had happened
could bring them together
I was relieved when she left
telling me I had nothing going on
that she could cling to
& a wise man
keeps his counsel
when words like that
get said
everything
that can be said
nuanced
between lovers
haters
the indifferent
has over the millennia
been said
maybe in different clothes
faces
accents
languages
everything
that can be done
between lovers
enemies
classes
races
nations
creeds
has been done
& all you & I
have to do now
is be like a rock star
every night in a new city
& act like
everything you have to offer
is new
