________________________________________________________________________________________________
Chapter Seven
I am who I am
except when
I am not
That's always
the option
I have got
I can be you
you can be me
that is
the meaning
of liberty
I can't be there
when I am here
but I can always go
elsewhere
with you
in the backseat
or not
That's an option
we've got
***
Chapter Eight
There was the birth,
infancy, childhood,
youth, adulthood,
a profession,
a retirement
and now this
I was one,
I was eleven,
I was twenty-one
...
and now
I am plenty-one
Most of it was better than
most other people's lives
with a large chunk
of my life spent
in a waterfront-home
adjacent to this:
But I always felt
closer to nowhere
unless I had
the beach to myself
In the summer
of my fifteenth birthday,
I fell in love
right in front
of the Long Island Sound
The sound it made in my heart
can still be heard
three thousand miles away
on the West coast
It was the day I met
Annette Funicello
We were a pretty big
beach crowd
and all our fathers
were good
to our mothers
but they all
were in love with
Marilyn Monroe
or Jackie Kennedy
and all boys
my age were equally in love
with Annette
This wasn't the actual
actress/Mouseketeer
but let us say
it was her twin sister
She ambled over to
our beach blankets
and Nickie Mangello
(our "gang" leader)
introduced her
to everyone
But the last person
he introduced
was me
with the words
"and this is no one in particular"
***
Chapter 9
Everyone but me laughed
and my heartache
measured on the Richter Scale
I walked home that day
feeling bluer than blue
and suicide seemed
the only option
At midnight
I jumped out my window
but my room
was on the ground floor
and I only stubbed my toe
That was when my laughter
was loud enough
to wake up
the neighborhood
***
Chapter 10
My sister Linda
was one of
Nickie Mangello's girlfriends
(he called her Wednesday)
Her personality
was sweeter than honey
Before the neighbors
could complain about
my volcanic midnight laughter,
she convinced them
that we were having
a midnight barbecque
I was to be the host
and she was my
"straight man"
I told jokes like
My parents were so cheap
they bought used diapers
[this was years before Pampers]
I had everyone
laughing their asses off
but I served them
the most overdone
hamburgers
yet no one
complained
***
The next chapters
________________________________________________________________________________________________
