An Anecdote or Two

Spem in alium

As two motorbikes

Rumble by. Hongo

Has an anecdote

About Bill Kittredge

Calling him at home

When his stereo

Had on something like

Spem in alium.

Kittredge, hearing it,

Made a joke, asking

Which of them had died.

Kittredge has since died.

On a barstool once,

He told a poet

Who was not Hongo

How that poet got

Accepted into

His writing program

In spite of being

A college dropout—

Seems Bill and Bill Root

Were in Bill’s office

Sipping some bourbon

From a flask, when Bill

Said to Bill, damn, Bill,

I forgot this one,

And pulled a folder

From an envelope.

Well, have you read it?

Bill asked Bill. Just poems,

He said, not the rest.

And? Well, Bill, said Bill,

I guess there are signs.

Fine then, let him in.

This was many years

Before Bill Kittredge

Teased Garret Hongo

About his music.

That poet dropped out,

But today he sits,

Playing some music,

The kind Hongo likes,

Some heavenly choirs,

As if someone’s died,

As the motorbikes

Add something to it.

He thinks of Hongo

Getting that phone call

From funny old Bill,

Who probably lied.