for Ali, Ali, Ali, a daughter by any other name
                                                        (April 2014)
Dear Nat,

your letter caught me up,
at the Village Vanguard bar,
so addressed and there saved,
knowing, believing it's a sign,
time to meet fleshed again,
my sometimes sub-let
neighborhood friend

doing a gig there
this weekend
finishing up the tour
where it all began,
nothing gonna change my mind,
in the city that's where I'm staying.

the road is calling out my name,
but I ain't walking out the door anytime soon,
they want too much body and soul,
but don't worry once or even twice,
got some cash, it's all right

early afternoon, bar empty,
got a few rainy minutes,
got me paper n' pen
and a beer, from the
bar man who also gets
me whatever else I need (haha)

sorry I missed you in Cleveland,
you, back in New York when
I'm finally out your way,
ain't just like fate,
to make us ache so all alone

read your lyrics,
made making some suggestions,
like a baby's new clothes,
lots of bows, a few lines fell
down onto the floor
can't be found
like broken pearls on a dance floor

J. sends regards,
told her what you wrote about
A Long Black Veil, she laughed,
promises she will wear one
when next we all three meet

touring was good and hard,
traveling time is writing time,
but sitting here thinking
how many years have passed and gone
since we first met,
so many roads different taken
by many a first friend,
each one I've never seen against,
let's not that happen to us

rail riding done for awhile,
see ya back on Bleecker Street,
if we're still "cool"
we'll have that fire burning!
Ok, we'll swap some  lines, fine,
but I want, claiming dibs
on that ole easy chair

P.S. got the rent money covered till your return in the summer

Bobby
April 1968
~~~~~~~~~
Between 1968 and 1973,
split my time tween Cleveland and NYC,
before returning to ny full time in the summer of '71.

I lived at 352 Bleecker,
above the long gone
but now moved to Brooklyn,
Pink Teacup restaurant. The eyetalian bakery on the corner of Bleecker and Seventh Ave., long time gone...almost fifty freaking years ago...anyway...I think the stain glass window is still there, gonna have to check it out...shoot forgot about Google Earth!

"She should have died hereafter.
There would have been a time for such a word.
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing."

~Shakespeare, from 'Macbeth'

An effigy of Alchemy
The Club is the knowledge of my wife on the air
Dead cops sitting on a Power Wind Park
The knowledge of standard sand buried there
A table w/ a glass of gods torn *******
1 turned fairest; The song really looking
plastic ability Mary half of the area of ​​interest
guns of the trees substance glory, the head
of the machine, & the lore of the legs
 to dance w/ the eyes and the conversion
of St. Paul wrote how Remember Love
He kneels to change my teeth fuel running
In that vision; From burning stove w/ the eyes
of a wild animal, they saw the star, they were
1 glad say, in the garden, however, on behalf
Women of the salvation of the glow
From Alchemy removed & brought him to the
My wife is the spitting image of the Soul Club
Dead cops standard air Science Park
Sand wind power That knowledge is unavailable
on the ground a glass table torn from her *******;
He looked really beautiful in the song to Mary
plastic floor looking for an opportunity to center
Glory be to get off the trees, & the care of the guns,
& substance the head of the machine;
& breakfast is at the foot of the dance w/ eye &
& has the Conversion of Saint Paul
Remember how you wrote in that vision;
Love lured to change the course of my teeth
Steaming food knee holding
the stove & the star looked out of the game;
Salvation, they call it; or as of the Garden
as far as to the south, & all among women;
as they rely more on the flame of Alchemy;
the Frog w/in time w/in & moving to a child
& teenager; They do philosophy in the mirror
of the town, Glory be to: A lot of cold to the
The temple and the second is married to Bettie
And there ran a young man Einstein's top Lion
the fool walks in torment, he was struck by
the reference to the madness of the turn; For he
has done wonderful things in this day and age;
In this sense, where was young Mary
Teenager to move in time to me? Do it in the
Mirror of the philosophy of the public,
Carl's cool for sure the lights of the temples;
The lion running second marriage Bettie
The shock torture Bookmark reporting
The boy Einstein's stupid mad;
And that wonderful era