from “The Day Lady Died” - Frank O’Hara
and for Mike I just stroll into the PARK LANE
Liquor Store and ask for a bottle of Strega and
then I go back where I came from to 6th Avenue
and the tobacconist in the Ziegfeld Theatre and
casually ask for a carton of Gauloises and a carton
of Picayunes, and a NEW YORK POST with her face on it
and I am sweating a lot by now and thinking of
leaning on the john door in the 5 SPOT
while she whispered a song along the keyboard
to Mal Waldron and everyone and I stopped breathing
This is a very, very heavy day for some of us. Memories of: Interpretive dances to “I wanna run to you” in our living room when I was like 7. Getting stoned and singing “When you believe” with Kate, and then also singing the Hebrew part even though it’s not in the Whitney/Mariah version. The time(s) me and mal fell asleep to the bodyguard everytime we were in a hotel. The gay disco version of “It’s not right, but it’s ok” on Meg’s last day here (also, Meg, I thought of you immediately when I heard the news. Wish we could down a bottle of wine together right now). And singing “I will always love you” to make people laugh and cry and uncomfortable.
