I Shared a Lover
with Ferlinghetti
I shared a lover with Ferlinghetti
No, he shared the lover with me
He was finally ready to share
With any stranger, really
When you love something
Set it free
Even if it’s your ’95 Ford Ranger
Lipstick or firetruck red
Depending on how you roll
My wife always can tell:
You've been with the truck again
Haven't you?
We moved to San Francisco in July, 1996
Never wanted to know
Where he lived
Let it be a North Beach mystery
Friends all knew
"Let me know if you're ever ready"
Said Jon Golinger
But when I finally got permission
To plant the tree in his honor for Arbor Day
After 10 years of on & off lobbying
I had to make sure we weren't
Planting it close to his home
Finally sought it out
Took my daughter with me
For the pilgrimage
At 4pm, on Sunday
February 17th, 2019
We touched down on the front steps
Took photos of my daughter, sitting there
The "LF" handwritten initials
On the mailbox
Confirmed we had officially arrived
That's when the axis titled
A life wondering if we possess freewill
Or if everything has been determined
The sound or touch of a canoe
Nosing onto the clear sandy shore
While taking photos at 4:02pm
A little red pickup truck was parked out front
With For Sale signs in windows
My first thought was
I've been looking to buy a used Ford Ranger
My 2nd thought was
Lawrence has a pickup truck
My third thought was
Lawrence's sight has been failing
My fourth thought was
But his vision has never been better
My fifth thought was
Would he just put it out on the street like this
With For Sale Signs?
(answer was: yes, it's the American way
And he bemoaned SF's autogeddon
So this is exactly how he'd do this
Can't make a big deal of this
Father and son make a joint decision
Just pull it out and throw up some signs)
Before I had my sixth thought
I found myself circling
Looking for additional signs
Found them in the form of
Hunters Point Shipyard parking passes
On the front windshield
Lawrence Ferlinghetti's pickup truck for sale
On the fucking streets of San Francisco
My mind shouted:
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
But my mind also asked:
Are we too fucking late?
Is there a line of callers
Ahead of me?
???????????????????????????????????????
The answer?
Well I didn't knock on the front door
We took an Uber to our car
To make the call in a controlled environment
If the truck was already sold
I wanted to cry in private
Not out on the sidewalks of North Beach
Lorenzo his son
Sounds just like his Dad on the phone
Looks just like him too, I thought
When we met the family upstairs
10 minutes later
I insisted we remain outside
On the sidewalk
But after the 3rd invitation to come up inside
I turned to my daughter and said
It would be rude to decline a 3rd invite
Steps carefully out of his front room
With no cane
Shaking hands, 45 days before
His 100th birthday
And I didn't wilt in that big moment
I made him smile when I teased
"What's the deal, Mr. Ferlinghetti?
The Bancroft Library
Has no room for the truck?"
I'm standing in their apartment
Daughter at my side
She knows enough
To know what's happening
I whispered as we climbed the stairs:
We're going to meet Lawrence
I declined the invite for a test drive
We don't want to take up
Anymore of everyone's time
We can work out the details later
Then Mauro Aprile Zanetti
Comes up the stairs
Lawrence's trusted secretary
And personal assistant
And I think right then
This is why we left
The East Village & Brooklyn
For the redwoods
And for this man
For City Lights
It took a quarter century
Since my arrival
But this was the life I imagined
Fantasized about
San Francisco's Urban Forester
(top tree guru/nerd/hero/villain/lover)
And a little Sunday afternoon visit
With San Francisco's first family
Politely declined another invite
To remain for coffee and baked goods
Fresh out of the oven
"We've taken up enough time"
Plus, we needed to get back to the Bayview
So I could change myself
Lie down on the fainting couch