Oh, my Blogginis, you little canaries, it is a combination of joy
and trepidation
that leads me to the contemplation
of all the odds and ends
stored back, way back
in the psychic closet of
my memories. I need the soundtrack to be melancholy,
Over the Rhine, “Latter Days” is perfect.
Scented with musty old books and worn leather shoes.
No mothballs here. The moths are thick.
Chew a stick of old style teaberry gum as we look with the heart
A favorite baseball glove
lives there tenderized with neatsfoot oil,
abandoned
along with my photo pack
of black and white Washington Senators
circa 1967 collectible portraits
and various colorful baseball cards
We got in to D.C. Stadium for free if we wore our Little League uniforms on certain generous days. Fathers and sons in all sorts of uniforms filled the arena so vast that the announcer’s voice echoed in a time delay. “Now batting….atting, atting, atting, for the Senators….enators, enators, enators, Frank…. ank, ank, ank. Howard,Howard, Howard, Howard.” Thunderous applause for the Hondo.
It was another world driving across the Potomac River
before everything broke loose in 1968,
Bobby Kennedy was killed a month after Martin Luther King… and the stadium was renamed to quell the trauma and grief sweeping the landscape.
It was safer then, before the riots and the rights marches, when I was still a child. Freedom can be radioactive and it was in the late 60’s. That freedom energy lit up a lot of cities that summer for better and worse. I watched D.C. burn for a week in person while many other cities burned on our black and white television.
I never imagined our cities would still be radioactive fifty years later in the second term of a Black president. Nothing is as simple as it seems.
In the back of my cold closet, moisture would gather due to the fact
that it backed up to an unheated shed full of dust and rust
I housed a possum in that shed once but not for long
With three brothers I hid things like gum and money, maybe cigarettes later on
I found that the ultimate hiding place was behind the light switch
Who would look there? for your silver coins? One of them would eventually.
I had the human figure target from our third grade trip to the FBI, Shot to Shreds for our unending excitement by an Agent with ear muffs. “Any questions, kids?”
“Why didn’t we get ear protection?” I wanted to say.
I asked the agent guide/shooter if I could have the target
“Sure, kid. Here ya go.”
Boom! Instant jealousy from every boy I knew who knew I had it
My mother could not bear to see it on my bedroom wall
It freaked her out beyond the planet Valium’s orbit
So I had to roll it up and put it in the closet.
I don’t think the FBI gives kids that tour any longer. It’s not safe or we are paranoid. Or there’s liability involved. You know how it is. If a kid pees on a tree, the EPA has to call the CDC to check with the NSA for a tox screen and DNA and satellite pictures which are lost when Congress wants to see for themselves if that kid was Bill Clinton.
In sixth grade I recycled the name stone for Ben Mae Manor
an historic old manor a block down the Parkway from my house
By balancing it on my purple spider bike seat
That historic stone sat heavily on the parquet wood floor of my closet for years
Until my younger brother moved out in the 1970’s and took it with him
It really ought to be returned one day. So Chris, where is it?
Way, way back in time our cat Pinky had a litter of kittens in that closet. It was dark and safe. We’d peek in with unrestrained glee and count the little fur balls as they suckled before they all had to go “to a family with a farm”. My parents didn’t know any farmers.
And the St. Louis Catholic School uniforms– white collared shirts with navy blue pants and a blue bow tie. Yeah, big fashion. Only black shoes were allowed. They hung in that dark space like mason jars of authority ready to can and pickle me. I refused a lot. I still do. My wife and friends tell me the nuns didn’t beat me enough. That’s cold to say though it may be true.
I had a pair of green leather Converse All Star low top sneakers when I ran away from home around 16. I wore them through the rainy night as I hitchhiked past Baltimore and into near oblivion. I thought I was going to hitch all the way to Boston where other family might appreciate or tolerate me. Not to be. A van full of hippies picked me up on their return drug trip from Philly. They got me stoned and I spent the night with them tripping out over split pea soup. It was very groovy. When I put those damp shoes back in my closet, my feet remained green for days, algaed evidence of my prodigality.
I had a baseball bat with Enos Slaughter’s name burned into it. I didn’t know who he was or where he played ball, but what a name! go out swinging, kid.
Latter Days… Over the Rhine
What a beautiful piece of heartache
This has all turned out to be
Lord knows we’ve learned the hard way
All about healthy apathy
I use these words pretty loosely
There’s so much more to life than words
There is a me you would not recognize, dear
Call it the shadow of myself
And if the music starts before I get there
Dance without me, you dance so gracefully
I really think I’ll be okay
They’ve taken a toll, these latter days
Nothing like sleeping on a bed of nails
Nothing much here but our broken dream
Oh, but baby, if all else fails
Nothing is ever quite what it seems
And I’m dying inside to leave you
With more than just cliches
There is a me you would not recognize, dear
Call it the shadow of myself
And if the music starts before I get there
Dance without me, you dance so gracefully
I really think I’ll be okay
They’ve taken their toll, these latter days
They’ve taken their toll, these latter days
Tell them it’s real
Tell them it’s really real
I just don’t have much left to say
They’ve taken their toll, these latter days
They’ve taken their toll, these latter days
burritospecial 