View From The Tower
It has been a busy summer.
Which is coming to an end.
Some of the maples are already starting to turn.
But the flowers are holding on.
This is where I always go.
When I want to get my mind right.
Mount Auburn Cemetery. Across the river in Cambridge.
To try to figure out where the hell I am.
And where I might be headed.
So what have I done with the last few months?
I gave lots of tours at the Boston Athenaeum.
I finished my drawing course.
And am planning some new sketches.
I finally got my driver’s license back.
After 22 years.
No, I don’t want to buy a car.
In Boston? What am I, stunatz?
But I might want to take the wheel if my travel buddy becomes disabled.
By cocktails. Or excitement.
My London gal pal Carmen is now in the States.
Having won a fellowship at Tulane.
She will be In New Orleans until next summer.
And will take many road trips.
God give me the strength!
My chess teaching is expanding.
I have developed a kids’ course at Malden Public Library.
Where I went as a boy.
I just got a brilliant new student.
She is Indian. And only seven!
Can’t wait to see her this afternoon.
The senior citizens at the North End library are really learning complicated concepts.
I always hit them with the latest stuff!
Their heads haven’t exploded yet.
And some of them are even older than me!
Now the librarian there wants me to start a kids’ chess club too.
As the saying goes: “No good deed goes unpunished.”
So here would be my Monday:
Senior chess at 2.30.
Kids’ chess at 3.30.
Then at 4.30?
Negronis at the nearest North End bar.
But here is what excites me the most:
I am finally getting a chance to help someone gain US citizenship.
A Vietnamese man named Tam.
When I ask him why he wants to become a citizen, he says: “Because I want to elect my leaders!”
I reply: “Fine. Just don’t blame me later on.”
My grandfathers knew no English when they came to America.
And someone must have helped them get their citizenship.
I hope they would be proud.
The Washington Tower at Mount Auburn is finally open.
For the first time since I came home two years ago.
It had been closed all that time.
Due to pestilential anxiety.
The view is mighty fine.
I can see some of the future.
But the rest is still hazy.
One thing I know for sure:
It will be a wild September.
As it always is.
Let the fun begin!