Bostonian in the Calistoga hills –
disaster stalked you in its
many forms: wild cats, wilier
lawyers, lazy helpers, panting creditors,
Russians with their dead canaries,
gas factory explosions, midnight accidents
with hay truck – your proclivity
for rage drove most away
but you hired me (twice)
and your dog Carmen stayed

o precious heretic with your
long brown hair and singing voice
so natural your accompaniment
so joyful your association so
juicy your participation as we
glided through the underworld and
on into the upperworld like
fairyland or heaven candlelit –
after bonfire led me on the
dark path to the goddess

I would work with her
again and that is saying
a lot – wryly realistic about
each day’s new flavor of
insanity from management
(of which she was a part) –
one day, impulsive, Let’s go
out for Indian, I joined her,
she drove to Tandoori in
New Haven, a good time

jewish jeweler builder poet human –
creative construction is his trademark
pleasure, his house a hexagonal
explosion of materiel on a
rocky hill downtown – a man
who touched my arm when
I revealed intense emotion’s
toothmarks, he said “It’s okay
to be afraid” and that was
what I needed to hear

most fabulous of fabulists, one
who’s intimate with the irrational,
documents interactions he observes
in that (un)familiar country –
courting apes and mice and roosters,
promulgating esoteric knowledge
of the floor and ceiling, secrets
of old men and women –
I drove way north just to meet
this recluse from my neighborhood

midwestern magician whose only
trick was his ability to appear
to swallow our toy plastic
horses – mystery persists in
how (and why!) he did this –
much later evolved into a
prime example of mid life crisis –
symptom: he developed post
retirement fears of water in
the basement, had to move

first to initiate the string
of hard luck in the house
next door – my mother
hid us in the closet when
she knocked, her conversation
and appearance were so onerous –
she had two great daughters
like Poppins’ Mrs. Corry, one
allegedly stole my baby ring,
it had a ruby chip