sketch for a portrait of Richard M. Daley


first, those narrow
shoulders made big
in padded suitcoat
sleeves & strands

of wind-swirled comb
-over greasy
& grayed, be-

leaguered, blue-eyed, “so what?”
squint. His crow’s feet

& podium from the hip


.












0806



oak shadows
on the noon streets

of Streeterville
summer

begins
a swelter

of sweat reflected
from new-sodded

chemically treated
lawns & smoked

-glass hi-rises &
breeze

is a
blessing is a

tease. Anne Bancroft dead & hazy
replay in my head of

old jokes
from Richard Pryor

cut from the finished
screenplay for

“Blazing Saddles,” something
about Madeline Kahn

& the sheriff’s arm
. the white women

capris
& stilettos

pretend
to not see me

struggle, starve at
poetry.