RELATING

High noon, I reckon.

Doesn't mean what it used to

Out West, when all sorts -

Motley, unsavory - exactly, my love!

Critters and the like

(Always of the two-legged variety)

Would draw and fire

Or draw and die, or some such.

And now we sit here at Bryant Park

Amid the Spring green, you, Kokomo lass

And I, the California scoundrel

To find this newer, more sublime peace.

[NOTE: Still procrastinating on writing a real stunner, but this to me has a quiet charm. It is Spring, and here illustrated for your enjoyment are two figures, the California-born narrator, and his conversation partner, a young woman of the Carib. They are seated on a bench, we can assume, behind the main branch of the New York Public Library. The allusion to their disparity, the unmentioned thousands of miles that separate their respective origins, underscores the encompassing civility and gentleness of their setting. They are simply having a pleasant day...]