Johnny Carson Poem

  
When I was ten I listened to Tiffany
and made signs for the barn cats 
to hang above the beds 
I also made for them 
out of hay.
I think we're alone now
and we were.  
When I was twenty 
I listened to CCR 
and made out with bartenders.  
When I was twenty-
five my friend John hid an empty 
bottle of Chardonnay 
behind my sewing machine 
and I got mad because I was supposed 
to be the one he talked with about how 
he lied to other people 
like his dad and the police, 
and then Johnny Carson died 
and John asked me if I had any idea 
how many people he had made happy and I said 
no because I was still mad at him for 
lying about the wine, 
and there was a scar 
on his chest I never 
touched, and he cried once 
after a trip to the grocery store, 
because I was being mean, 
concerning myself 
with what he wasn't doing 
to make me happy 
and how he ground 
his teeth in sleep, 
but now I see what I never 
gave him and we both also 
still love the song 
We Are the World.  
Speaking of 
Bob Dylan, when I was twenty-eight
Sam held my shoes at the Dylan concert
and he knew the title of the song Love Minus Zero
and that will 
always be enough for me
and when he found a poem I wrote for him 
last year he said tears 
stung his tired 
eyes when he read it, and 
again I wanted him to hold 
me and rock me, I still don't think 
too much;
the right amount.
The greatest love
of all, sang Whitney
Houston, is easy to 
achieve and I used to sing it
on ski hills but I don't really
ski anymore,
anyway she said learning to love
yourself is the greatest
love of all and I didn't
know what she was talking about 
then but I think 
I am beginning to now
& I know it has to do with music.