David Lehman
Here Goes
Today we're alone with the phone.
"I believe we need all the escapism
we can get and even that won't be enough,"
John Ashbery said and he's right isn't he
say I listening to Dick Haymes
sing "There's a Small Hotel" on XM-Satellite Radio,
my preferred form of escapism.
Then hours go by in the space of five minutes
and you realize you've forgotten where
you're coming from and where you're going to
and everyone else in the room is younger
then we are. Once in a while someone
comes along and makes everyone feel happy
and I can respect that, said the man
on the mission to reform a half-dozen corrupt
institutions. But charisma is a mixed blessing
And to feel blessed is to be wounded
in the French manner. Thus incoherence results.
And this is what they whom we fear
despise us for. They think we never grew up.
And we go on proving them right.
As for me, I'd rather ignore the whole show
and listen with headphones to the new song,
an old song that Sinatra peerlessly does,
"Here Goes." Get the rice out, the trip to Paradise out.
Here goes someone in love.
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