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FW: From Linford
Look at me responding as if this letter was actually written to me... that's
your magic Linford... if feels as if it was.
> How have you been?
I have just been to see Tom Waits in Chicago. I still smile at the
thoughts. I travesed with DM and Raven. How this letter in it's entioning
of him, and of Raven's seemed to be speaking of my life! Not at all though.
It was speaking of a mirror life that some one like me has lived, or will
live, or could have lived. Does that make you some one like me Linford? Or
does that just mean that the life you will live is like the life I could
have lived?
> This is Linford writing from Toronto, Ontario on a fabulously brisk morning,
> bright and airy, Northern and keen. I'll be meeting Karin at 7pm tonight at
> one of our favorite little French restaurants in all the world, Le Select
> Bistro on Queen Street. We've grown fond of this city.
Toronto is my favorite of all the cities that I have visited. I'm not sure
if I've share my words on it with the list, so I include them at the bottom
of this missive. Maybe, you will identify with it's tale as much as I
identified with yours.
> (Karin and I performed at the Ottawa Folk Festival Saturday night with Cowboy
I am sure the audience realized how blessed they were.
> My Mood" or Tom Waits: "The Mule Variations." We puzzle over the new
Linford, what of your record deal? What of the winter tour? What ARE you
building in there?
> the neighborhood of Green Hills. We were marveling to learn that Tom Waits
> would be performing at The Beacon Theater in New York City on a Saturday
> following an Over the Rhine show at Gordon College just north of Boston in
...
> orchestra tickets on his English credit card and a stupid grin on his sleepy
> face. (Who cares that with a few service charges tacked on and what not they
> cost $94 apiece…)
My phone call was from the back room of a Starbucks. I told my boss that
she could fire me if she wanted, that I couldn't come onto shift until I had
Tom Waits Tickets. It took 10 minutes, and she understood. My co-workers
were all so jealous.
I could not afford the first floor tickets. I was about fifth row balcony,
with a friend of mine from Pittsburgh, and Raven. We sat with our mouths
open for the whole thing. With a little time, and a little space
distortion, you were right below us Linford. You will not be disapointed.
The show is amazing! I would tell you more, but I do not want to ruin it
for you.
You will... perchance know how we feel, when we watch you.
How some of us wish others to one day fell... when they watch us.
He sang, "Invitation to the Blues."
> We're counting this one down. Ten days numbered on two open hands. Our ten
> year anniversary. And I sure hope that the piece missing from this coming
> night so perfectly puzzling isn't you. More later, but she'll undoubtedly be
I'm trying to come. Road trips are costly. Especially if you have no place
to stay. Tom took all I have right now, and I don't think I can catch back
up in time.
> P.S. My favorite bird has always been the Redwing Blackbird but Karin and I
> were reading about Indigo Buntings a few days back and we learned this and I
> quote: Females are never blue.
My favorite bird has always been the Blue Bird.... or the Hawk. Depending
on my mood.
Be well.
Gardner.
I promised you poems...
Toronto
Toronto was clean, almost too pure
and the people came close to overly friendly.
Masked, she asked my friend to see her beauty.
The other danced for me, from her car,
clutched it like an airplane seat floatation device.
On the floor, I danced for her.
She was the warmth of a childhood blanket
and I wanted to wrap my self firmly in it
when I tripped into sleep.
Instead I slept in the bath.
Though I may never fully know
either side of Toronto,
she languaged love into me
without ever speaking the expected French.
She made me so joyful in rain that I skipped
pressing the down button in the sky-rise of my soul
the elevator doors opened,
she pressed ground and my heart descended
in the way that only lovers anatomy allows.
Having betrayed her once, the trust given was more precious,
shaking on the floor I somehow lost part of me.
Toronto was clean,
which left some with the desire to litter.
It's people were a silent glow,
which filled my friend with the desire to shout.
Me?
I just spent all morning looking for the currency exchange
hoping to get the best percentage rate on my American Heart.
Toddlin¹ Town
In 1990 ‹
her lakes seemed like oceans,
her people broke over me like salt water,
and her streets walked through my love.
For nine years, I decieved myself
as Ibelieved that Chicago was the end of my travels.
A destination.
A fleeting relationship over a summer vacation
does not work out in the long term.
I know that from women, but could not translate to cities.
In 1999 ‹
awaiting the pre-programed malfunction of Earth
at one.one.two-thousand ‹
I traveled back.
I howled with the rain dogs,
worshipping aspestos.
I drank myself blind, because the bars didn¹t close until morning.
I feasted on tomato pies.
But the city and me didn¹t seem to click like we had before.
The magic was lost as the romance had fallen.
I marched in the ranks of the disapointed,
I clung to the sheer face of hope,
I understood the meaning of the cows.
³I love what you¹ve done with the cows.²
It was her green eyes that brought me back to Chicago.
When she could have walked away...
--
"To err is human, to kill so that one may be an heir is homicide"
Brian Gardner, "Twisted Quotes"