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!