A girlfriend once informed me, “coffeehouse observations are not enough”.
I told her the unexamined life is not worth living, in what I thought was an exemplary use of that quotation, illuminating the position of both Socrates and myself, but she just said, “that’s exactly the sort of shit I mean”.
Parkstreet
Like the second top drawer,
Since the earthquake last September,
We stick
When we open.
Parkstreet
The Summer of Love,
Or as it was known
In my family,
The Summer We Bought The Fondue Kit,
Was ending
As I was born,
But in winter,
In the wrong hemisphere
And the wrong house.
Parkstreet
"I need to ask you a favour mate, well, two favours."
"Whaddya' need mate?"
"On Monday I have to take the new work to the gallery, it's too big to carry on my own. Should only take half an hour, down the big stairs, through Woolloomooloo, up the path to the gallery."
"No worries mate, canvas is light, even I can carry that. What's the other favour."
"I need you to take it seriously. We have to be on time to meet the bloke there. And I need you to refrain from tripping down the stairs jokes, from small talk, I don't know mate, for some reason it seems inportant that we carry it there in the right way. It's my first real work. Hope you don't think I'm a being a wanker mate, it's just important to me."
"No worries mate, I understand, like Seymour Glass shining his shoes before he goes on the radio in that Franny And Zooey book you lent me."
"Right mate, just like that."
Parkstreet
When I'm here, and I think of you, I remember that I'd never heard of this place when you were alive, but I remember all the things you liked, the sort of people, the sort of food, old houses, dogs, coffee, all the things you liked, and I know you'd have loved it here, so when I'm here I think of you, all the time, and wish you were here.