1. Ways to Cross a River
You are living near the river. Do you travel in a boat to the other side? Do you walk the new pedestrian bridge built some years ago? Or do you ever drive across the Mid-Hudson Bridge to go hike Minnewaska or see a play in Woodstock? Somehow I doubt you do either.
"The river is wide, I cannot cross over . . . " I used to play this song on the piano in the living room. I would sing the lyrics — "Build me a boat that can carry two, and both shall row, my true love and I." I always teared up when I sang that song. I still do.
Your parents had a boat. They belonged to the Wasps only yacht club. Once, only once, you took me to that boat in dry dock. We snuck on board. It was cold — too cold to get naked — so we didn't stay long, but I was clearly the aggressor that day. It was awkward and we never went back there.
And you never took me out on the river. I remember years before, watching the crew team rowing on the Hudson. You were the coxswain, the one who sat in front yelling through a megaphone. When the race was over your team had won and they threw you into the water! Everyone was yelling and laughing and you were laughing too, a dripping wet blonde boy pulled from the water.
I saw you that day, but another boy approached me first and got my phone number. I did see you though, for the first time that very day. I even remember what I was wearing. My memory is too powerful for my own damn good.
And I haven't crossed that river in decades. Have you?
2. Twenty Dollars
$20 isn't much these days. But I remember going grocery shopping with my sister in 1964 when she was 16 and I was 13. My mother had given one of us a twenty dollar bill and a long shopping list. We filled the cart. I remember spaghetti and milk and ground meat and canned tomatoes and iceberg lettuce, orange juice, Italian bread and a bag of apples. And when it was time to pay — the 20 was gone! Disappeared! Missing! Lost!
We freaked and drove home empty-handed. My mother was upset. "How could you lose twenty dollars!" She drove to the store herself. Twenty dollars! A huge loss back then, even when we had money to burn.
3. How Many
How many times have we said good-bye?
Be well, good luck, call again.
Please call again.
Is it 10 times, is it 25, is it 30?
How many years since that first time — was it really forty-five years ago?
How many years until the next time?
Good-bye, be well, please stay alive
so we can keep saying
"Good-bye, be well."
