Mathias biking through pre-dawn Miami photographing graffiti and the waves upon the sand. Mathias crossing the MacArthur Causeway. Palms silent. Sleeping iguanas. Us chatting like we were in Brooklyn again and just leaving a reading. Unnamable Books. Park Slope. Another night in the dimly lit basement. The torn sofa. Amy, Cathy. Others. Or the tree-lined blocks of Carrol Gardens. Fawning over something Matt put together. Those days. Blood and beer. Distance and years. People we loved who didn’t make it. Lovers unloved. Loves threaded too thinly and pulled apart. By what? I remember when it felt like enough just to be young. A pair of sneakers, an outstretched arm. Half- years crawl by. Just living a life. Whatever that is. Whatever that becomes. What do they say about the real ones. You just pick up where you left off. Joseph and I in Berlin. Mathias’ Monday, my Tuesday. Not so much a pause. More like the space between flipping a record over from one side to other. The needle perched and waiting. Mathias, there is barely audible static. The poem and its music.
From Tokyo with Love
7 thoughts on “From Tokyo with Love”
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OMG, SK … : “Us chatting like we were in Brooklyn again and just leaving a reading . . . Those days. Blood and beer. Distance and years . . . when it felt like enough just to be young.”
OMG. I’ve been thinking these same things. Suddenly, everything became different. Your poem is so beautiful.
Yeah, funny just messaging with Mathias who hasn’t lived in BK in such a long time & yet this poem arrived. I still remember going to a book party at your apartment back when I was a student in your class at NS:)-
Absolute LOVE! The poem of turning a record over like time.
Thanks! I was grooving on trying to write more of that “Eleanor” poem, but then this one interrupted it- ha ha.
Real one. Hugest heart. Heart overflowing
Yeah it’s weird to think about this time when I was just getting to know Mathias, Jules, Matt, Kaveh and you and Farrah. I remember going to a bunch of readings in Unnameable’s old space and like hardly knowing anyone… Same with attending the readings Matt was hosting in Carrol Gardens. I was like who are all of these poets and where did they come from- ha ha.
Mathias <3