5912. MY OCCASION

MY OCCASION

I am living in other times and places,

forgive me do. I can't sneeze without

breaking glass  -  not Harry Glass of

East Troy, Pennsylvania' not Seymour

Glass of those Glass family sagas of

J. D. Salinger himself. Just glass. The

silicate stuff. I have no other that I amass.

-

These little carriage houses behind homes

and living spaces  -  Washington Mews and

MacDougal Alley  -  these are where I began

my New York life. Not Pfaff's  -  too late for

that; too late for Marie's Crisis too.

-

Variations of the Virgin Mary still roil the

old church at Houston and Sullivan Streets.

The Shrine Church of St. Anthony of Padua  -

and isn't that such a mouthful to say? Since

1888, blowing its bellowing church-bell noise

at the seven o'clock hour. But why? What

more notice do we now need? Vendors and

their tables too exist under this most-banal,

old, genuflection.