…Mike Goldberg
is starting a painting. I drop in.
“Sit down and have a drink” he
says. I drink; we drink. I look
up. “You have SARDINES in it.”

–Frank O’Hara, “Why I Am Not a Painter”

Because when Frank the poet
told Mike the painter
You have SARDINES in it
I thought he meant in Mike’s drink.
You get the picture, me,
missing the turn off the same road
I’ve driven a thousand times–
SARDINES, for god’s sake!
I could see that guy who owned Pacci’s–
what’s his name–the one who served us grappa
his father sent from the old country,
in a ketchup bottle sealed with a cork–Spiro–
that’s his name, yeah, Spiro–
maybe putting sardines on his brick oven pizza.
Because you have to grow up by the sea
to love strong flavors like that.
SALMON on the other hand…Oh Shit!
I just missed my turn.