“Dark Matter”

Youngitty, Oldditty
Lovers Harold and Maude,
More romantic than Bill’s
Infamous Rome and Jewel.

Stage your own tragedy,
We will watch it play out.
Octogenarians
Skin makes me drool.

*”A double dactyl is a structured light verse form invented by Anthony Hecht and John Hollander in the 1960s, consisting of two stanzas, each a quatrain. It uses a strict 6-6-6-4 syllable structure (dactylic dimeter) with a rhyming 4th and 8th line. The first line is nonsense, the second is a name, and one line is a single six-syllable word.“

**Lordy Lord, looking at this poem makes me think of my unofficial college professor and college best friend Timothy Brent Turzo.

Tim introduced me to the 1971 dark comedy cult classic film “Harold & Maude”. The entire soundtrack is made up of songs by Cat “Yusaf Islam” Stevens. The gist is a depressed suicidal 20 something year old young man falls in love with an 80 something year old woman that has a lust for life. In the film Harold keeps pranking Maude with inventive ways of faking his own death. Also in the film Maude is learning a new musical instrument at an advanced age.

When I handed this poem out I also attached the lyrics to rock n roll’s Vincent “Alice Cooper” Furnier’s song “Dead Babies”. More “dark matter”. More Tim influence. I had once see him perform this song at a karaoke bar in North Brunswick, NJ. He followed it later in the night with Glen Campbell’s “Like A Rhinestone Cowboy”. That was Tim’s sense of humor.

To keep the “dark matter” theme going I also passed out this list of “dead babies jokes”. In my twenties, hilarious! Now that I’m a father, not…as…funny.

Going through my old notebook I found these comments from my classmates, reminders of the good times and discussions we had in Professor Susan L. Miller’s class. My biggest score is her feedback on this one! A reminder of why she is hands down my favorite professor I had in college. Professors like her are lifesavers!!! From personal experience both in person and from her poetry book “Communion of Saints”, I think it’s okay to publicly note she is guided by the ultimate life and soul saver, the Lord and Savior. Lately, after seeing my brother mentor a new generation in hockey I’ve been thinking about going back to school to become a creative writing teacher.