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(a friend poem inspired by Frank O’Hara and the friend) »

January 18, 2006

Get This (from the mailbag, sorta)

Ed note: Oft-contributor Mike Grau shot over an email this week that he'd found in his unsent box. It's from 2000-even. How does that happen?

Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2000 21:35:01 -0700 (PDT)
From: mikegrau
Subject: Re: random moment
To: Jamie Perez

fuck. get this: tonite i was walking home from bryant part, where they were showing the maltese falcon on a big outdoor screen, when on 39th between bdwy&7 i spotted a four-foot high karate trophy--right there in the middle of the sidewalk. it was strange. i stood there gazing at this massive hunk of fake marble and plastic gold. an elderly couple stopped to look at it too, the old woman going so far as to touch the two figurines atop, forever frozen in a pair of roundhouse kicks. such a trophy was meant for a grand master. I couldnt imagine the tournament in which it was won.

in a flash i thought of wrapping it in cardboard and mailing it to you at your new place in michigan--a four foot karate trophy standing in the middle of your new apartment. it would have been brilliant. it would have been hideous. But alas, i walked on by.

then i got home at 1115 and obsessively checked my email for no good
reason, and i got your note. being i as not one to ignore the fortuity of coincidence, i quickly finished my glass of scotch and headed back out the door, back to the gleaming trophy, wondering how strange i would look carrying it home, imagining what the weight would feel like on my shoulder, calculating how much newspaper, cardboard and packing tape it would take to send this mammoth halfway across
the great nation of ours that produced such a monstrosity. but after three blocks (long street blocks, mind you, not short avenue blocks)...but after three long blocks, back to the corner of 39th & bdwy, my trek led me to fruitlessness. the karate trophy was gone. my maltese falcon had taken flight.

its the compulsive things in life that can be the most disappointing. or like my father once said: "it's a long day at black rock."

-m

Posted by Rock Heals at January 18, 2006 12:00 AM