Variations On A Theme By Tu Fu by David Fewster

                        Kathy Drasky CC



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VARIATIONS ON A THEME BY TU FU
                                                           (for Howard Stone)

Many provinces now separate us
Since we met twenty years ago
Both of us up to armpit now
In shit-stained diapers
Who would have thought?
You never call, you bastard.
I know, you, with another on the way,
Have no time
Does the word ‘vasectomy’ have no meaning?
(I had mine.)
What shall we tell our heirs?
That we were the leading poets of our day?
Remember the time I vomited on the bus
In San Francisco
Just as the wino came back to bum
A hit off our quart of Rainier ale?
That night in Hollywood where we came
Upon Rudolph Valentino’s grave at 3AM
Except we could never find it again
Because we were on acid
Or the evening we took your life-size
Anatomically-correct sex toy
“Dolly Milksop” for a stroll
Around the block on Sunset Boulevard
Just to prove we weren’t ashamed
To be seen with her in public.
Driving down La Cienega Blvd.
Sniffing amyl and yelling slogans from religious pamphlets
At pedestrians, or how about the
Time we got booked on the Gong Show to sing
Our hit “Disco Boy”
Only to see the damn thing canceled the week
Before our performance.
Yet, today, we look in the mirror
Our face wrinkled, bellies expanding
Check-out clerks at Safeway
Treat us with contempt as we stand in line
Trying to decide between Pampers
Or Spin magazine
Who gives a fuck for us
Or our troubles?--
Face it, our descendants will think we were
A couple of irresponsible morons
And who can blame them?
But still
Our poems will be handed down in spirit
Along with those of all the other
Monumental screw-ups
And God knows,
There is no lacking there.




This October marks the 31th anniversary of David Fewster’s arrival in Pugetopolis, a land that in his mind stretches from Olympia to Vancouver, BC. His work has appeared in the anthologies Seattle Poems by Seattle Poets (Poetry Around Press, 1992), Revival: Spoken Word From Lollapalooza 94 (Manic D Press, 1995), Thus Spake the Corpse: An Exquisite Corpse Reader Vol. 2 (Black Sparrow Press, 2000), and 20/20: Tacoma in Images and Verse Peter Serko, 2010). His book “Diary of a Homeless Alcoholic Suicidal Maniac & other picture postcards” was published by a 2003-2004 TAIP grant from the Tacoma Arts Commission.
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