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