4567. I MADE NO MOVE

I MADE NO MOVE
Once I had entered anyway, there was nothing else
to do - I couldn't run, I couldn't hide; Chagrin Falls,
Ohio, like being in a Hart Crane movie-poem. I had
any number of things I 'could' have said : passing time,
idly awaiting a train. My friend and his wife were away,
actually cruising the Danube, a vacation jaunt like a jostling
tourist of anywhere American. It would be t...hen just me in
this funny, not-really-so-faraway, faraway place. The dark
brown lacquer of this tabletop, I noticed was in fact very nice,
and nicely done. I called the young waiter over, and said :
'Do you know why no one starves in the desert?' He said
he didn't. I replied back - 'Because of all the sand-which-is
there.' He laughed a bit, and shuddered. Turning to the others,
he said : 'Bring this funny fellow all he wants for free. Damn,
he's earned it.' Another long, slow jetstream Sunday, and
it felt like Hell. It reminded me - so lonely, so sad - of the
time my Zen-acolyte friend, at a 14th street hot dog cart,
ordering, said to the guy 'Make me one with everything.'