11:} Parallel Worlds Discovered!

Down
Pontiac Street
I rush towards the bus
stop in front of Mission Church.
Anxiously I await the garbage truck
into which I can discard my upsdide-down
world during the short ride to another...



It is The New World discovered by my
explorer-friend Jimmy, who invited
me on his expedition to greater
meaning and dimension. I have
never been able to impress
upon him my gratitude
for saving my life,
he would likely
dismiss such
sentiment
humbly.
We met
bearing
completely
different mindsets

and worldviews, yet
somehow we managed to
link up. Although my hopes
for a future lay weighted under
improbabilities, his dreams
soared straight over the
realms of possibility!
I suppose in this way
our friendship teeter
tottered in balanced
orbit around this
strange world in
which we spun
far from the
one dealt
us both,
with
not a
being from
either sphere
aware of the other!

Less than an hour later
I arrive at the radio station
where Jimmy once interned, is now the
Program Director of, and who finagled me
a non-paying internship-job as 'Production Director'.
After years of making amateur home recordings
to amuse ourselves while pondering
the mysteries of life through
a haze of pot smoke, we
were now doing it
professionally,
and for
real!
On
the walk
from the recording
studio to Jimmy's office,

two men stroll around the corner,
one giving 'the tour' to an older man
sporting a broad and marvelous grin in
matchless complement to his perfect
and snow-white hair! I back up
tight against the wall in
courtly deference to
his passage along
the narrow,
carpeted
hallway.
We are
so close
I can sense
each frosty lash on
those bushy, ethereal
brows trumpet his presence,
contagious in charm and calmness,

gentle joy, and obvious love of life to
which I can only respond in kind.
They instruct me thereafter
to treat the famous as
mom and pop, and
every mom and
pop as if
they are
famous.
This recipe
has never failed
to please even the
most discerning of guests...

Later
that night
I decide she has
not gotten any revenge
after all, nor ever will!
One fan among millions of
'I Love Lucy', she especially
loved Lucille Ball. I denied her
pleasure at announcing me a liar
and useless daydreamer by never
mentioning my encounter with
Desiderio Alberto Arnaz, III,
merely moments after I
'almost' hit her that
day, still bright as

the sun, darker
than the ink
of blackest
irony used
to script
the play
of my
life...