Today was the deadline for a contest sponsored by The New Yorker to write the caption for a cartoon by Victoria Roberts.  I saw the drawing in my mother's copy of the magazine as we flew home together from Grandpa Pete's funeral.  It really made me laugh.  I liked the drawing so much that I wrote this poem (from which the caption I submitted was extracted) in my notebook while sitting down for a while at the studio after I got back home.  


You know Dr. Bacon
I still feel a little fragile
But I keep having this incredible
Dream that I'm meant to be a symbol
Of Cosmic Rebirth

Otherwise I'm afraid
That being an egg really isn't
All it's cracked up to be

The Smoke Screen

I offer this poem up as a public service announcement.  It's written for the benefit of the readers of this blog who may be considering a trip to Midtown Manhattan (whether for business or pleasure) in the coming months and wish to be informed about the popular entertainments and diversions most likely to be encountered while walking through our busy streets.    



The Smoke Screen

 

One day early on

In our friendship

Richard Musto explained

To me how a smoke screen

Often serves as the basis for many

Of the most lucrative scams
Run on the streets

Of Manhattan 

And by smoke screen

Richard meant to say a diversion

Some kind of sidewalk

Sleight of foot or hand

Which then serves as a preamble

To greater flim-flammery

Such as when a man steps down

From the curb into the path

Of an oncoming clothes rack

And immediately starts to fight

With the guy pushing the rack

Which draws attention away   

From a kid in a red windbreaker
Who grabs the rack and streaks

Off down the block with it

As the pickpockets cut loose

Along the crowd's perimeter and

And a few minute pass by

Before the first patrol car appears

So the initial distraction

Provides the opportunity

For an ensuing sequence 

Of mild mayhem

And wealth redistribution

Enough to make Batman blush

It's precisely this sort  

Of maneuver that enables a lucky
Few working the City's   

Streets and bourses to

End up being so
Handsomely reimbursed


 * * * * * * * * *

And here to complete this blog entry is one of Michel's very finest picture capturing Richard in action with a bit of his own necromancy along the streets of Midtown.