Halloween 1973

The knock on the door

It's Harold Simon

Harold gives me some acid

He invites me to his party

just blocks over

from where I lived

Here

take this

come to my party later

okay

as I put the small piece of paper

on my tongue

Harold leaves

I shut the door

I sit down to wait

but in a little while

I look at the sunset

as a Roman Trireme rows

across the orange sunset

west of Pullman

It's time for Harold's party

a swift walk across the hill

to a shabby house

Harold lives upstairs

I knock

A beautiful gypsy woman

answers the door

Harold wears a magician's robe

and pointed hat covered

in tin foil

his head is covered in tiny mirrors

Sharat Chandra holds the crowd

from his comfy corner chair

as I sit on the floor listening

and for the first time

I understand poetry

Barry G. Wick