The old war is over the new one has begun <br />between drivers and pedestrians on a Friday <br />in New York light is the variable and structure <br />the content according to Rodrigo Moynihan's <br />self-portraits at the Robert Miller Gallery where <br />the painter is serially pictured holding a canvas, <br />painting his mirror image, shirtless in summer, <br />with a nude, etc., it's two o'clock and I'm walking <br />at top speed from the huddled tourists yearning to be <br />a mass to Les Halles on Park and 28th for a Salade <br />Niçoise I've just watched The Singing Detective all <br />six hours of it and can't get it out of my mind, <br />the scarecrow that turns into Hitler, the sad-eyed <br />father wearing a black arm-band, the yellow umbrellas <br />as Bing Crosby's voice comes out of Michael Gambon's <br />mouth, "you've got to ac-cent-tchu-ate the positive, <br />e-lim-inate the negative" advice as sound today <br />as in 1945 though it also remains true that <br />the only thing to do with good advice is pass it on<br /><br />David Lehman<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/january-2-2/
