LatinosUSA

you can’t

stare
at a painting of
a naked lady for too long,

without
people thinking
you’ve been staring at it

for
too long.

~~

my friend Bill James played the blues…kinda.

mostly,
he drank beer
and smoked weed,

but,
every
now and then
he played the blues.

it
was the 60s
and the old blues guys
were having a revival of sorts,

and
Bill played
songs by really
obscure guys like Yank Rachell
and Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee.

when
i first met Bill
he was fresh in from New York,

where
he tried to
make a name
as a musician, but
the only thing he ever got

was
beat up,
and a real
love for the blues.

i remember the time
Bill got drunk,

and passed out in his car.

he
spilled a
quart of milk
on the seat, and
he slept all day in the sun

and
the milk
turned bad
and stank for a month.

and
Bill was
one of those
guys who came to mind
when you heard that old song

that
called someone
a walking contradiction,
partly truth and partly fiction…

except old Bill
(who was probably all of 26)
was all fiction, but he was a good guy,

right
up to the end,
when he locked his car
and took his guitar out into the park

and
hung himself
from a big old tree.

i wrote a poem
about him
once,

a
long
time ago.
i’m writing
another for him now.