Face Fuck Book #42--Jazz

Face Fuck Book #42--Jazz

I never was as full of pride
As when you stood close at my side
A big head of curly jet-black hair
As was the style then to wear
Pepper and salt, we didn't care
We made our own summer fair
Your dark breasts, pert magic
       braless in see-through fabric
       in the age of love
Every where we'd go
       we'd always find a bright rainbow
We were poets of a style
       smoked dope and wrote a while
You had a notebook filled with high times
As a hash pipe passed your lips divine
       on a Florentine balcony
       sleepless night of scribbling gallantry
Listening to Hendrix on a record machine
Moments lost in an endless dream
I'd sleep
       preferring the early morning hours
       as now, to write
       when the night heat
       of the kiln walls would sour
Fingers stained with chalky residue
       I would scribe with no retinue
A pencil in hand
       computers were science fiction
       erasers our delete
We'd write, then listen
I'd read when you awoke
You'd joke
Life was not dear
       a meal was cheap
       central market once a week
       prosciutto and porchetta
       spicy pancetta
       bread
No one ever starved
       or found dead
Of course there was Ritchie
       in an LSD trance
       thought he was a bird
       did a wild dance
       soared off the roof one night
       saved when his foot caught
             the drainpipe
Hobbled for a month
       a small price to pay
We were wedded in bliss
       night and day
       nude we'd kiss
Nights of exploration
       with a paperback Kama Sutra
       the pages ragged and loose
       didn't suit you
I'd proudly hung the sheet,
       with a red circle neat
       like a Kamikaze flag
After you put your virginity  
       in my gift bag
I still have your guitar
       the black rope
You improvised as a guitar strap
       frayed beyond all hope
       that you'll be coming back
You were mine
Life was isolated and fine
Too good to last!
The phone broke the silence at 3 am
Shattered our world as we knew it then
Your father, ill, a professor
       Chicago U
       what could you do
I drove you slowly to the airport
We made the trip of two hours into seven
Stopping in ancient cities fortresses
Shining cities in the sun
       clean white stonewalls
       lack of pollution
       an answer to all  
Rome's defense against barbarians
       we sailed right through
       we were non-sectarian
The night before departure
Your stomach was so upset
You stained the sheets with regret
I tipped the maid, no big feat
In that big bird you took your seat
Waving as it taxied away
For that day and forever
Caught in a life's spider web endeavor
I went on to Morocco
Hid our hashish in my shoe
Walked across the border, a stint
It came out looking like a footprint
No one ever knew
I was still waiting for you
One letter I guess I earned
But you never returned
To smoke and write
To burn
The night
I still have your journal
       can't make any sense of it
       but it was you
       beyond comprehension
Time like ocean waves
       buried our youth
       my sweet tooth
You were so young
       so radiantly beautiful
       indisputable
Bronzed like Nefertit
       every night a sunset treat
I still have your photo on the wall
      in that Indian green tie-dye
      we bought at a fair stall
I tell people who ask
      "That is my first love"
       and I sing
      "We flew across Europe
       as if we had wings"
We realized
       summer was going going
Then like the warmth of summer
       you were gone....