FRANK'S LIBERAL EDUCATION
(for Miller on his Thirteenth Birthday)
Born of Frank, Sr.,
and Our Lady of Perpetual Longing
the fifth or seventh of eleven -
who can remember?
Frank was brought up
by a free floating family
to float free.
An independent thinker.
Frank Sr.,
an odds maker
angle player
sporting life
as honest as anyone outside the law
taught him the higher maths of
Infinity
Eight ball
The ponies
And lives captured in a dream
Taught him the benefits of
Fi-delity and Loyalty
And the utility of a pocketful of hand-shakes.
His favorite uncle
a man of the cloth
taught him how to
Play the piano
Shoot nine holes and various handguns
And communicate with the higher powers.
Uncle Sugar
might have shown him
how to snap a jab
and throw a flurry,
but ain't nobody saying.
Perpetual Longing walked him along the path of
Reading books
Recognizing love
Keeping his own council
And the equality of the great and small.
And the equality of the great and small.
When he was a baby,
his auntie, Ma Raven, poked him in the ear
and left a message
Said to listen for her rough song
and when he was ready
she'd tell him some things
In time she did -
She told him the world was divided
between the agreed upon and the enchanted
that
mirrors, reflections
and surface things
could trap you twixt the two
and you had to get into something
before you could get out of it.
Ma Raven told him to aovid rats
she hated rats
the two and four-legged varieties
both recognized by their moving jaws and skittish behavior
distracting you with shiny things
while they eat you alive.
Most important, she said, don't be afraid.
Before he left home
Frank understood
you could pay a price for things
that weren't for sale
And there was nothing
you could steal
that would do you any good.
He learned that life
was a tightrope walk
with a bounce and sway
that sent messages
through his feet
into his heart
and finally his head
He learned his body
always got the message first
and the territory between
what his heart felt
and his head thought
was a minefield littered
with limbs, lives, and intentions -
good and otherwise.
Every animal Frank ever met
taught him to nap anytime
and eat when he could.
Wind taught him
to expect the unexpected
And stars that there's no time
like the present.
At times Frank thought life was just one goddamn lesson after another
and with all these lessons he'd never get a day of nothing at all.
Frank got days of nothing at all - he didn't enjoy them all that much.
By the time Frank hit the road
he was prepared
for glorious contingencies
stray teachers
and all the visible-and-in
an enchanted vaudeville could offer.
Frank was happy to be
Foot loose & Fancy free.
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