Playlist
(5-10-11):

            Bernadette begins for me in New York.
w/ Christopher, Lee Ann, Meg, Steven, Wanda—
Christmas trees on fire, firefighters burned saving squatters.
Tony, who I saw later (1999), and later learned
raped in the bushes outside of a home
owned by a lawyer, & his wife who were out of town
My friend Serena, in Hawai’I—that was 1985 or 6,

All I knew I’d imagined. It’s ok. (It’s dark).
X-mas is kissing—.         wood in forests grows like Own/ formalized—

Then I read The Desires of Mothers to Please Others in Letters,
after a Hebrew National & running into Harleen. 9/11 hadn’t happened yet,
            although of course it had
            But I was busy cataloguing Bernadette’s writings & finding new friends
So there was someone to talk to.
It must have been the 90s.

In the archive now, Kandia Kouyaté ‘s father’s insistence that she gain an education
            rather than sing
leads her to fight the social violence of infant mortality
in Mali. She had a stroke in 2002. Mortalitie’s a good song, still
What happened & happens one night
’s just enough for a good eternal song, Bernadette.

And here’s the catch:
there’s never been an evil crush. Happiness is everywhere.