For M After 5 Years

Because writing poetry, as far as my own abilities go, ranks right up there with fixing a car, mental telepathy or even basic mathematics, I can only read and share the works of others.

The following is an excerpt from the poem, Having A Coke With You, by the insightful and tragic Frank O’Hara.

I look
at you and I would rather look at you than all the portraits in the world
except possibly for the Polish Rider occasionally and anyway it’s in the Frick
which thank heavens you haven’t gone to yet so we can go together the first time
and the fact that you move so beautifully more or less takes care of Futurism
just as at home I never think of the Nude Descending a Staircase or
at a rehearsal a single drawing of Leonardo or Michelangelo that used to wow me
and what good does all the research of the Impressionists do them
when they never got the right person to stand near the tree when the sun sank
or for that matter Marino Marini when he didn’t pick the rider as carefully
as the horse

it seems they were all cheated of some marvelous experience
which is not going to go wasted on me which is why I am telling you about it

I’m thankful for every minute of every day of the past 5 years with you. Your bottomless well of kindness, your undying support and your unpretentious intellect have been and will continue to be on the receiving end of my own appreciation, pride and awe. And kisses.