3386. IT WAS SO EASY BEING JAMES MERRILL

IT WAS SO EASY 

BEING JAMES MERRILL

(Philadelphia)

There was an old man saying to me, 'you get just

what the traffic will bear; with that you must be

satisfied, there is no other there there.' Once I

nodded I moved away. The trolley tracks were

in the street, but it was New Year's Day -

no trolleys were running, just buses.

-

I never liked music by Marvin Gaye. It

always seemed so stupid; especially the

one that goes 'dum dum dum da de da

dum' (sorta')  - and then, of course, the

crass disaster which is What's Going On?'

Oh no! I've done it again, mixing up Otis

Redding and Marvin Gaye  -  one dead

in a plane crash, one whom his father

would slay. But what's the

difference anyway?

-

Medical miracles, it is said, now rule the

day : of course it's all untrue and everything

is a dastardly lie. There is just nothing

that special in living on, nor anything

that special in dying. And the trolleys 

are not running today.