A Huapango for Junius Avitus

Accedit lacrimis meis quod absens et
impedentis mali nescius, pariter aegrum
pariter decessise cognovi, ne gravissimo
dolori timore consuescerem.
                     Pliny the Younger

1

Stepping out from the new Bangkok Café
Digesting the whitest
Meat of spicy chicken

Night hawk heard aloft
Orbiting the ventilators
Of Congress Avenue, this hot hot gulch

His high, strangled cry
A soprano raspberry
Reminding me of Rossini

Whom ice cream polished off
Boom - how come I slow down slightly
...