Charlie, there’s always another story & this morning I’m searching again for that photo of you & Einstein horsing around for the Rolleiflex. Or, maybe you’re only living in New Hope with Chan, & on the bus reading The New York Times, heading to a gig in the Big Apple. Or the Charlie in this story is Chaplin clowning for the camera with Albert. Or, maybe, I’ll search on the web to see if I can buy a glimpse of you from the other side, while “Relaxin’ At Camarillo—Take C” fills the room. That damn photograph is still bugging me. He’s on his violin & you’re on alto. Kansas City Lightning, man, I think you already know Monk & Baroness Pannonica are gone, too. They took the plaque off the house on the corner where you used to live across from Tompkins Square Park, but you’re still the most famous guy on the street around here.
87 The Paris-American
Yusef Komunyakaa's most recent book is entitled The Chameleon Couch (Farrar Strauss and Giroux, 2011), which was shortlisted for the 2012 International Griffin Poetry Prize. He is also a recipient of the Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award and Pulitzer Prize for his collection Neon Vernacular (Wesleyan University Press, 1994). Currently, he teaches at New York University and is a famous member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers.
