NATTY DREAD DRINK

I was thumbing through my back pages, and came across this:


The Day Bob Marley Died

I sat on a glacial rock
In Central Park,
Drinking warm beer
Through a red
Bendy straw,
Sun illuminating
The Heineken bottle


I kind of like this.

I think the main reason I like it is because it's true-- this is exactly what I did on May 11, 1981.

I cut out of school that day and went into Manhattan (you'd be forgiven if you pointed out that this appears to be a bit of a trend)-- I was amazed that I could walk into a deli abutting the park and buy a six pack, which was all my friend and I could afford. Back on the Island, I had to lurk outside the local Super-X waiting for someone sympathetic enough to facilitate underage drinking by making a purchase for me.

The beer was warm because we'd heard that you could catch a buzz quicker by drinking it off the shelf. We drank it through straws for the same reason.

But I also like the poem for reasons other than its accurate reportage of my youthful profligacy. I like the simple riddim of it-- the "glacial rock" and "Central Park," the "Sun illuminating/The Heineken bottle."

I like how it begins with an image of strength and permanence (that glacial rock), and ends with illumination.

I like how it uses the word "bendy"...

And although it's a bit of a parlor trick, I like how I weaved in the Rastafarian red (the straw), gold (the sun), and green (the Heineken bottle).

My goal with poetry is (was?) always to pack as much as I can into a small space, and this is one of the rare occasions where I think actually succeeded to some small degree.

A thousand pardons for crawling so very far up my own arse today...