2 “Blues” by Alexander Best
Posted: August 9, 2011 Filed under: Alexander Best, English Comments Off on 2 “Blues” by Alexander Best
Alexander Best
SENTIMENTAL BLUES
.
A friend of mine was funny,
wild like a rubber band.
That friend of mine was funny,
just like a girly-man.
And when he dwindled to a skel’ton,
I sat and held his hand.
.
I had a cat for comp’ny,
forward she made me go;
a wise she-cat to scratch me;
she’s buried in the yard.
And when I need her good advice now,
that’s the lonesome part.
.
I never had a dream life
Until I let you go.
I dream about the old strife
– ain’t these some foolish words !
But when I wake up from this rev’ry
I’m gonna wake up! hard.
.
A friend of mine:
That “friend” was the first childhood friend I made when we moved to Toronto in the late 1960s. Archie was 9 when I first met him in 1969. He died of AIDS – a big man who’d withered away to a mere 100 lbs.– in February of 1993, just after his 33rd birthday.
Archie MacDonald, 1960-1993, pictured here on Baldwin Street in Toronto_early 1980
BEST LITTLE BLUES
.
Took all this time, took all my –
Wasted all this time.
– What I know wouldn’t cover a dime.
My dumb voice kept at me: shush! shush!
Two worlds did brake me: the dead and the rush.
.
…All this time – just to be myself;
the noise and the buzz, and I already was.
Years have flown, and my soul on a shelf.
All this time – only been myself.
Has my heart grown ? Is my head my own ?
Oh — ooo — oh — ooo — ohh — ooooo.
.
(2004)
Zócalo Poets 