I dream that I meet my friend S____ S_____and Jonny the guitar player.
They both ask to buy product from me, so I say, 'Yes, I'll do it, but first I have to repunctuate (*) all the signs on Hollywood Boulevard.'
'I'd like to see that, ' says Jonny.
'I'd like to write it down, ' says S____S____.
We go to a screened in porch behind where Jonny is living.
They are both tired and lay down to sleep as I begin repunctuating.
The repunctuation was taking a little longer than expected. When they awake they both are impatient with me because I still haven't sold them anything.
I continue repunctuating. They get mad and both leave, swearing at me.
I am in a piano bar in a cocktail lounge that is located in the high school I used to attend in my home town.
It is only open sometimes. It is usually kept secret and only intended for the faculty and a few select students.
It is in a room that opens behind the school library.
They have Michelob and Lowenbrau on draft.
There is a small crowd of rowdy customers. They are all sitting around on those one piece wood and metal high school desks we used to use. Among them is the woman I went there with, who may or may not have been my love interest, and a tall 'Wavy Gravy' type hippie guy with long blonde hair, dressed in buckskins and knee high Indian mocassins.
Some of the customers are shooting pool.
I go into the adjoining room which is still a part of the school library. There are bookshelves with books on them.
I look through the books, then go back to the piano bar.
'There are lots of books in there, ' I told the bartender, 'but most of them need to be repunctuated. I've only repunctuated a few of them.'
The bartender looked at me blankly.
'I know a place that's got a piano bar for songwriters.' I told him.
He didn't say anything.
'Yeah, each one gets a desk with an FM radio, a cassette recorder, and a portable keyboard.'
Nobody was paying any attention.
'So you get your beer, you record a song off the radio and you figure out the music on your portable keyboard.'
'And that's your piano bar.'
Nobody thought it was very funny.
The woman I came with was angry with me. She was getting ready to leave.
When she left I got up and followed her out.
The hippie guy in buckskins got up also and followed out behind me.
The woman had already reached the pavement and was flagging down a car.
The hippie guy asked me, 'Are you two together? I mean are you__? ' He made a gesture with his fingers and whistled suggestively.
'I don't know, ' I said.
The car stopped and she got in. It was already speeding away.
The hippie guy and I began walking up the road together, not saying anything.
It was one of those winding mountain roads like Laurel Canyon Boulevard in the Hollywood Hills.
When we came to a narrow gravel driveway leading up a steep incline with woods on either side of it, the hippie turned and began walking up it.
'Oh, do you live up there? ' I asked.
'Yes, ' he said.
'Can I come and visit you sometime? ' I asked.
'No, ' he said.
_________________
(*) Repunctuate: To rearrange the punctuation of an existing piece of literature so as to alter its meaning, often with humorous intent.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem