Missed the game until the top of the eighth
at the Knickerbocker the sound off the TV
I ordered a vesper and a burger
and the Mets fan on my left, a chess instructor,
filled me in, and when the game ended
I wandered over to the piano where Ehud
played Kern (“The Last Time I Saw Paris”)
and Berlin (“I Used to be Color Blind” with
its tricky bridge) and it was half past
midnight, and did I want a third vesper?
No, bed was the right place for me
but unfortunately the war in Vietnam
was still going on and I had to go or
figure out how to dodge that bullet
— DL
from the archive; first posted October 16, 2013
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Author: The Best American Poetry
