2014 Program Notes, Book 10 39
Wednesday, August 13, 2014
Ten a.m. again and toothbrush time.
I know it’s sad to be alone,
It’s so bad to be alone,
Still I should’ve known
That I’d be glad to be alone.
I should’ve known, I should’ve known!
Never should have picked up the phone and called him.
“Hey, uh, listen, uhm …
Uh, I’ve got to, uh ...
Oh, you gotta go too?
So glad you understand.
And ...”
By the way, did you say
Nine tonight again?
See you then.
Toothbrush time!
The Total Stranger in the Garden
Sitting across the table
In the garden of our garden apartment
I stared at the paper my husband was read-
ing
And I said to him:
“You’re a stranger
A total stranger
Always have been
Always will be
Sitting there
Hiding there
Behind that printed mask.
Stop reading, stop reading me out of house
and home
Must I ask ‘till my mouth fills up with foam?
You total stranger
You stranger, you!”
Then he lowered the paper
And I saw it was not my husband
But a total stranger
A total stranger who said to me:
“I am a kind of hobo of space
Trying to find a mask to erase
The mask behind the face.”
George
My friend George used to say
“Oh call me Georgia, hon,
get yourself a drink,”
and sang the best soprano
in our part of town.
In beads, brocade and pins,
he sang if you happened in
through the door he never locked
and said, “Get yourself a drink,”
and sang out loud
till tears fell in the cognac
and the choc’late milk and gin
and on the beads, brocade and pins.
When strangers happened through
his open door,
George said, “Stay,
but you gotta keep quiet
while I sing
and then a minute after.
And call me Georgia.”
One fine day a stranger in a suit
of navy blue
took George’s life with a knife
George had placed
beside an apple pie he’d baked
and stabbed him in the middle
of
Un bel dí vedremo
as he sang
for this particular stranger
who was in the United States Navy.
The funeral was at the cocktail hour.
We knew George would like it like that.
Tears fell on the beads, brocade and pins
in the coffin which was white
because George was a virgin.
Oh call him Georgia, hon,
get yourself a drink.
“You can call me Georgia, hon,
get yourself a drink!”
