Continuous eloquence wearies. Grandeur must be abandoned to be appreciated.
Continuity in everything is unpleasant. Cold is agreeable, that we may get warm. – Blaise Pascal
Sometimes
he felt a little like Forrest Gump.
Been some places.
Seen some things.
Done some stuff.
Learned a few things ‘long the way.
Had a friend.
He’s gone now.
Old man. Old old man.
Said to me once,
“I saw Babe Ruth hit many a home run.”
Then he told me about being a boy in New Jersey
and going into the city to Yankee Stadium.
By the time I met him
He was pretty much one hundred years old
and I would pick him up at his son’s house,
his son himself an old man.
And I would drive him to church.
Where I would pray,
Lord, let me have a life like this guy’s.
And, Lord, let me still remember
when I get this fuckin’ old,
how much fun I had.
Another time the old man said to me,
he said, “I knew JFK a little.”
The old man got out of the military,
a modest hero, of course,
and got a job designing Miami
and was invited to a fund-raiser
for a young political star from The North.
Jack Kennedy introduced himself
and the old man says,
“Senator, we’ve met before.”
Imagine this.
My old friend was on the beach
when the sodden survivors
of Torpedo Boat 109 washed up on shore.
There are some of us
who have seen some things.
But I digress.