The FAB&PP Poem of the Month for December 2001

i’m sitting here
on the train
trying
         to milk
my wine trying
to justify my
inherited
              requirements
to plan the
time
       zero sum

and all the
while singing
in my other head
    hey billy bonny
    billy the kid

john hartford
whose poem sits
in unbeating
pulses on my
disc frozen
unpublished on
to tape
(as if
my pages
mattered)

and my
guilt is
compounded

(i long to
ask my fellow
travellers

did you
know his
music did
you know
that he
died did
you know
that
our
companions
poets
friends and
teachers lovers
and fantasys
are all dying

that we are
dying one by
one)

i hear the
music remember
the forlorn
poetry of my
reaction

sitting here
i collect
my thoughts
my wishes
my
jealousies
and feigned
ambitions

i am out
of wine

we haven’t
reached
providence

i collect
obituaries
life is a
collection
of obituaries
    hey billy bonny
    billy the kid

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