Saturday, July 02, 2016



A lot of people have taste, but they don’t have the daring to be creative.
                                         ~ Bill Cunningham

I read/heard a couple of weeks ago about the death of Bill Cunningham.  In case you’ve never heard of him, he was a fashion photographer for more than four decades for the NY Times.  A fantastic documentary was made about his life.  He lived a simple life and valued freedom over money. He rode around the streets of Manhattan on a bicycle.  He was one-of-a-kind.

I was looking back in my book of poems from the 90s and found something I wrote after seeing a fight on 6th Avenue.  I was in New York for a meeting.  Those were the days before I retired.

NEW YORK CITY, March 1991

The guy he come around the car
yelling at nobody in particular
say he gonna kill somebody
or some shit like that
an the dude with the pretzel cart
he say who you gonna kill sucka 
an he reach in the cabinet
right there where he keep the pretzels
and he pull out a knife 
mean muthafucka
real long
no street knife
one he use for pretzels I guess
an he whup that mutha around
now what you say son-a-bitch
an the guy change his mind bout killin
say you stay outa this fucka
ain’t yo business nohow
an the situation heat up fast
while a crowd circle around
waiting listening leaning forward and backward
staying tense ready to step away
ready to run maybe
a knife on Sixth Avenue
in front of Radio City Music Hall
ain’t happen everyday

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