"Independence Day, 1976"

This is the poem I wrote for Gerald So's poetry anthology THE LINEUP, Volume 3, published last year:


Independence Day, 1976

The fireworks over the Hudson
Light up the graffiti here on East Thirteenth.
We huddle in the doorway,
Watching, nodding, waking

You looked like Kansas when you got off that bus
I could see the fields in your eyes,
Smell the wind in your hair.

You were so brave and lost,
When I took your hand you said
You would go anywhere
Except home.

On my mattress on the floor,
Windows open to the heat,
WIth the sirens our lullaby,
Your trembling fingers touched
The vein that ran from my heart.

I showed you how to do it,
To take the slow bullet
Like warm love inside you.

Sweet steel and a smile
And the sirens fade

Into this wilderness of tears
You came falling like an angel
Now we go down dreaming
together



– For Jim Carroll