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This is what Jack McCarthy looked like in 1971
when he might as well have been singing
1000 bottles of beer on the wall
In only 10 days, I will drink them all
of that decade,
he met the woman
he is still married to
and they have been
clean and sober
ever since
The occasion
was a Christmas celebration
for a large Irish family
+ two Italian boys
whose initials
are PO
and PG
The latter's
guitar is
visible
It is a 1959 Epiphone
and I am presently
helping him
sell it
One of Jack's four sisters
was toying with an umbrella
but wasn't sober enough
to explain why
I don't know where
I was seated at the table
but I paid little attention
to the music
because chattering
filmed the room
Mostly, the person I spoke with
was a man of the cloth: Brother Edward
who taught math at Manhattan College
Mostly we talked about
the beatitudes of Geometry
When Jack sent me this picture [last week]
he referred to the professor as "my Uncle Eddie"
Excluding Jack's seven-year-old sister,
Brother Edward had consumed the least
amount of alcohol at the party
But in 1971,
on Christmas Day,
I was too drunk and stoned
to trust that assessment
A splendid time
was had by all
***
Fast Forward to the present:
Within the past four weeks,
I have had at least
ten hours conversation
Their music is better than ever
***
Thank you for reading this
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This is Mrs. CarPeo, commonly referred to as
ReplyDelete"Mr. CarPeo's better half."
I met Jack McCarthy in 2015 and he was
much more handsome than he was in 1971.
PS
The CarPeos are no strangers to "Love's in Quarantine."
AKAme" says:
ReplyDeleteI must confess to a few pounds of jealousy
whenever Mrs. CarPeo refers to another man
as "Handsome"