Versace, the legend
gunned down in cold blood
two bullets, back of the head
led an exotic life
till he was shot dead.

---

I saw Joe Dimaggio
at Arnie & Richie's Deli
on Miami Beach

he was an 80 year old Joe
not the joltin kid
who whipped hardballs
out of the baseball park
set records,
ran like an athlete
around the bases
married Marilyn Monroe

this was an old Joe
in his last years
silver-lined hair
charisma there in the face

I remember watching him
turn to go to the men's room
stooped over like a hunchback
ambling inch by inch

a sad reconstruction
of the young legend
etched in The Old Man & the Sea
the hall of famer
who hit safely in 56
consecutive games

This was Dimaggio by name
and reputation
with wrinkled skin
arthritic bones
whose bat turned into a cane
but the sea would not open
for this Moses again
only the myth remained.

---

There is another chapter beyond the
hill if we are patient and willing to wait.
Beyond the tears and sense of loss, the
damage and desperate moments. There
is another chapter with a more stable
plot. The protagonist is less a villain
and happy endings are prone to wend
their way through the carnage. As time
passes the soul will heal. The heart will
grow less heavy just as broken bones
mend. In the aftermath, there is often a
glow, an illumination, a calm and
restoring faith. You may still grow
sentimental with an appendage of the
past, if memory does not fail you, but
your sense of then will diminish like the
setting sun beyond the canyon cliff.
You will know as the Tao suggests, how
lucky you are to be where you are now
instead of being where you were then.
There is another chapter and you will
write it.

Lester Hirsh has published several volumes of verse and been published in a variety of small press periodicals. The four poems above are from his 1995 chapbook "Mosaic" (Minimal Press, www.essentialbooks.com ) A seasoned performer and songwriter as well as a poet, he has released several recordings, including a CD retrospective, "Tales of a Troubadour," and "Sweet Surrender." He is publisher and co-editor of Bone & Flesh magazine and a touring member of the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts. He lives in Concord, N.H.

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