My Experience

Cream of the crop

I was told

graduating from my Ivy

school which is

not why

I found myself
four months later
driving a bakery truck
the night delivery route to every

Seattle-area QFC

including Renton
where one particular
windstorm night I found out

from a bagboy that

Jimi Hendrix

is buried
there.

So I
took a break
drove the truck and
found him
an ugly grey dome
guitar the wrong way
the whole thing unfinished.

I only knew
some of his songs
and once read
his biography in
the stacks
back at school when I was
supposed to be writing about
I don't know
something.

Wind whistling
the pines
one in the morning
white Ford van
full of bad cookies
I thought
Jimi
you were so good
but so kind of lonely
I felt sad
and then
I got angry
thinking of his ordinary
skeleton
under there
They were supposed to take
care of you
I said
They should have been there
for you
when you were little
and they should have
told you to take better care
of yourself
made you soup
told you the truth
tried to help even
if you didn't want to hear it even
if it was all for your art
you were still
just a person
and I wish
you'd had better friends.

Then I said
out loud
and loudly
I would have made you soup
when you were sick
and so sad I
would have
pissed you off
and nagged you
and made you get some sleep
and eat
and always shown back
up for you
even if you hated
me a little.

Nothing, from the dome.

We're both done
I guess
I said
and left
and drove the truck
back to Seattle
all the traffic lights
blown black
all the intersections
dicey
just the radio
for company.