-Where can "Shorty" be?-

Elizabeth "Shorty" Fensterbau, who at 16, used me

as an early experimental barometer (with my acquiescence)

scooted from my father’s used ’53 Pontiac Chieftain, leaving the quick

scent of "Topaze" in her wake along with her underpants.

––I wasn’t confronted with the goods presented in evidence

until the next day when the oldman had his Pontiac washed

and vacuumed at

“Theo’s Shell Station” on the corner

of Bedford and Oak Grove Avenue.

A full-service provider.

I was barely a car driver at the time, and far less engaged

in the periodic rummaging of my sister’s dresser

searching for examples to the secret meaning of things.

 

What next?

––Maybe a romanticized recounting of a glassy-eyed Fensterbau

gazing into the firmament of the Pontiac’s fuzzy headliner.

––There’s more to be said of this poem's sweltering beginnings

of young romance on run. but––

building the stanzas within the larger, more substantive column

detailing with life’s monumental events isn’t as cut and dry as it might seem.

Again: isn’t as cut and dry as it might seem.

                                     -O-

––“The secret meaning of things” is nabbed from Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s

volume of the same name.

––“Where can "Shorty" be”? is a paraphrase from Pablo Neruda’s

searing, unrequited love poem to“Guillermina” in the volume: “Extravagaria”.

––"What next?" is gathered from the title of Elliott Carter's brainy one act opera.

Notation:

I'm not ethically obliged to acknowledge "What next?"–– because it's a phrase

common enough without having to give credit to someone a lot smarter'n me

using it for the title of his opera,–– but as evidenced herein, I'll drop a name

anywhere, anytime, whenever and wherever I have the opportunity to do so.