-way the hell off Broadway-

when I die —

drop dead of the aneurysm or

by a common episode in choking or

by the general physiological constriction

of internal passageways or 

by descending stairs in the darkness,

by the slickness of ice or the heavy

density of snow,
exaggerated senility,

the last
elongation of exhaling,

the indiscriminate

maniac 

the hip-bone

the chicken-bone

the chemical boner,

will Fall River,
the heavy-handed city of longer poems,

dim its lights,—— dim

the slanting incandescent

streetlamp at the gutter

over the sewer where I once
was a fisher of baseballs?

I’m not asking for much.

perhaps the goliath 

drive-in movie screen

will rise from its ashes
above the moistened naugahyde

to flash its light for the sake of young
love's exploration

at the sweltering Ponta Delgada 

when the lid is locked-down 

when I die —

            drop dead

                        maybe of the aneurysm...