3126. THE SIGNIFIER HITS PAYDIRT

THE SIGNIFIER

HITS PAYDIRT
(down at tompkins square park)

Long tall Sally and the little red Corvette,
they're both sitting 'midst weeds down by
the dock : sick of everything and just
wasting away. The game is in overtime,
the crowd's beginning to trickle out, and I'm
watching movies on the infield wall.
-
Helene Krempa and some Nicole Kidman
lookalike doing gymnastics on the schooner
Mirage. High seas and misdemeanors too.
A couple of miles off shore, and, damn, you
can get away with anything at all.
-
The guy in the Big Beat sweater, that's me.
It's 1966 again, and once more I'm down by
Tompkins Square; kissing four-eyed angels
named Margaita and Rosalita. They've got
a nasty brother they call Pabolito, but he's
away in the Vietnam War. Lucky me.
-
I pick up the loaded dice.
Somehow (beats the hell out
of both them AND me)
I roll a twenty-three.
Down at Tompkins
Square Park, just
them and me.