Jul 26
WHEN DEATH COMES, IT WILL HAVE YOUR EYES
(Verrà la morte e avrà i tuoi occhi )
I once knew a man
who knew a man
who had seen
F. Scott Fitzgerald
drinking a milkshake
in a drug store
(vanilla or chocolate
he couldn't be sure)
flicking idly
through a magazine
( no he didn't know
which magazine )
in the company of
some blonde
"I'll never forget what he said!"
"Let's go
to the supermarket
Shelia!" he said
and that's it?
"That's it!"
his voice caressed
each syllable
as if
he were on stage
but he was
like a man
becoming a manakin
like in that episode of
The Twilight Zone
you know the one?"
in a future
that had as yet
to happen
"I don't know
what I had
expected..."
the man who knew the man
who knew the man
who had seen and heard
F. Scott Fitzgerald.
"Maybe a Gatsby or a Gatsby
who had survived
the novel's
tragic ending
and wished he hadn't!"
Here now at home
Mr. Fitzgerald
sits in his armchair
eating a chocolate bar
checking out next year's
Princeton football team
suddenly like a puppet
yanked on a string
he stands up
hand on mantlepiece
like some bad acting
in a silent movie
before falling
to the floor
he will never get up
Nick and Gatsby
come
stand by his dying
so do Monroe Stahr
and Kathleen Moore
even though
words fail them
yet they now
more real than he
Monroe reads
some last
scribbled lines
"There was a flutter
from the wings of God
and you lay dead
your books
were in your desk I guess
and some unfinished chaos
in your head
was dumped to nothing
by the great janitress of
destinies."
Gatsby
closes his eyes.
*
WHEN DEATH COMES, IT WILL HAVE YOUR EYES(Verrà la morte e avrà i tuoi occhi )is of course the wonderful poem by Cesare Pavese.
Monroe and Kathleen are from Scott's last and unfinished novel THE LAST TYCOON.
I also knew a guy who knew a guy who peed beside Richard Brautigan. He was so in awe as to who was at the next ****** that he peed all over the top of his shoes.
(Verrà la morte e avrà i tuoi occhi )
I once knew a man
who knew a man
who had seen
F. Scott Fitzgerald
drinking a milkshake
in a drug store
(vanilla or chocolate
he couldn't be sure)
flicking idly
through a magazine
( no he didn't know
which magazine )
in the company of
some blonde
"I'll never forget what he said!"
"Let's go
to the supermarket
Shelia!" he said
and that's it?
"That's it!"
his voice caressed
each syllable
as if
he were on stage
but he was
like a man
becoming a manakin
like in that episode of
The Twilight Zone
you know the one?"
in a future
that had as yet
to happen
"I don't know
what I had
expected..."
the man who knew the man
who knew the man
who had seen and heard
F. Scott Fitzgerald.
"Maybe a Gatsby or a Gatsby
who had survived
the novel's
tragic ending
and wished he hadn't!"
Here now at home
Mr. Fitzgerald
sits in his armchair
eating a chocolate bar
checking out next year's
Princeton football team
suddenly like a puppet
yanked on a string
he stands up
hand on mantlepiece
like some bad acting
in a silent movie
before falling
to the floor
he will never get up
Nick and Gatsby
come
stand by his dying
so do Monroe Stahr
and Kathleen Moore
even though
words fail them
yet they now
more real than he
Monroe reads
some last
scribbled lines
"There was a flutter
from the wings of God
and you lay dead
your books
were in your desk I guess
and some unfinished chaos
in your head
was dumped to nothing
by the great janitress of
destinies."
Gatsby
closes his eyes.
*
WHEN DEATH COMES, IT WILL HAVE YOUR EYES(Verrà la morte e avrà i tuoi occhi )is of course the wonderful poem by Cesare Pavese.
Monroe and Kathleen are from Scott's last and unfinished novel THE LAST TYCOON.
I also knew a guy who knew a guy who peed beside Richard Brautigan. He was so in awe as to who was at the next ****** that he peed all over the top of his shoes.
