TEN YEARS AGO TODAY

 TEN YEARS AGO TODAY

2:29 pm at my boy Barry's 

house in Brigantine, 

I grab my black Eddie Bauer jacket 

and dash out the door because 

the 501 is due at 2:30 

one hand is deep 

in my right pocket 

as I rush to the corner

where the bus trembles up, 

only to realize

I have only $20 bills 

which yesterday the Treasury Dept. 

announced will soon

feature Harriet Tubman 

and the bus glides past 

and the next one 

isn't coming for an hour, 

so I curse our 7th President, 

only it's the kind of day 

that Bill Withers sang about 

so I stride on and revise a poem 

in my head about

coming to terms with

being in the Spectrum

which I read last night at Dante Hall, 

one of the best open readings 

since Its Your Mug 

and I change the title 

to "Portrait of the Artist 

as a Starfish in Coffee" 

because my cousin Derri 

a gorgeous actress in LA

posted a video on FB 

of Prince on The Muppets 

performing that song 

which grows like the hair 

in your ears 

and I decide to revise 

the last two lines 

by cutting "like" 

which I suddenly don't, 

now I pass a brother 

out front of his house 

digging a hole between 

the sidewalk and the street 

as if putting in a new mailbox 

or planting a small tree 

I turn on to Brigantine Blvd. 

where crew clad 

in yellow T-shirts 

with "TCM Paving" 

in lavender letters

is redoing the asphalt 

and I pull out my iPod 

but my Shure 535e earbuds 

are too good at isolating 

which is dangerous 

on busy streets 

and now I'm rising up 

one side of the Brigantine bridge

I peep white birds wheeling 

in the sky and peep that signs 

on the Borgata & Harrahs casinos

are both flashing purple 

and as I crest the bridge 

to get buffeted by the gusts 

Brigantine is famous for, 

there's a notification

for a new comment

from Derri on FB—

"It's not fair that he's gone"—

I lean on the railing

to catch my breath

and see the water below

is reflecting nothing 

but purple light . . .