I forgot to tell you about Donovan
The harsh and mocking attitude
Dylan displayed toward him.
Donovan sang him a sweet song
But then Dylan sang him a great song
Full of American complexity
(No, I don’t remember the lyrics)
And the camera was on Donovan’s face
For at least part of the time―
Enough to reconnoiter his smiling distress.
I was worried for Donovan, pained for Donovan.
It felt like Donovan was getting run over
By an express and would he live?
But that was 1965 and then I remembered
1967 and having my own room
And playing Donovan, yes Donovan,
Something called “Wear Your Hair Like Heaven,”
So clearly he got to live beyond
The blow that he had taken.You of course weren’t in my life back then.
Sarah was going off to Europe
And I was fearful, not knowing where
To turn with the pain like a wind rushing
Through the nerve-rich hole that her departure exposed.
I lost the room and sat on the stone steps
Of a church without a thought of going in.
I remember a newsstand with a light in it
And the way it stood out there in the dark
And the smell of the air through
The sidewalk vents as the subway rushed past,
The way I did a lot of rushing past
The person I really was in that
Drawn out state of desperate need.
January 2004
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