TENDERLOGUE: JOEL LANDFIELD

I SAW YOU ON THE BUS DOWNTOWN AGAIN TODAY (HELLO STRANGER)

WITH APOLOGIES TO BARBARA LEWIS

I moved across a bay

to escape

your memory.

 

But the last time

I climbed on to

a bus downtown,

it was the most

crowded

bus

I’d ever been on,

People pushing and shifting,

 

tidal,

 

like the front row of the Danzig show

we went to

that time you lost your skirt,

 

or cattle on a train.

 

I looked up, and there you were,

(Hello Stranger)

holding Addy,

both of you smiling down

at me from

just above all of our heads,

nestled

between an ad for a

personal injury lawyer

and another

for

City College.

 

Both of you

smiling down on me,

(Sh-bop sh-bop my baby)

like a spotlight

just on

me,

(Sh-bop sh-bop my baby oooh)

even in

the late afternoon

sun,

 

taking me from

there,

 

all the way back home.

 

But no.

Just a photo.

 

This ain’t no fucking metaphor,

it wasn’t a woman that looked like you,

it was a picture of you.

(Seems so good to see you back again,)

Stock photography,

taken from way back

then

(how long has it been? A-ooh)

and put on this city bus,

a spot for

women’s services.

 

“I never hit her,”

I wanted to say, to explain,

(It seems like a mighty long time)

“I wouldn’t!”

But, of course,

they couldn’t know,

wouldn’t care.

Just some woman

 

and a little girl

in an ad on the bus.

***

(Oh my my my,

sh-bop, sh-bop my baby)

***

I had almost forgotten the

incident until

today. I got on

the bus, downtown

again.

 

I looked up,

expecting to

see you there again

and

(seems like a mighty long time)

sure enough,

there was

 

your

(I’m so glad

you stopped to say hello to me,)

face,

your faces. Smiling down

on me.

(remember that’s the way it used to be?)

***

You told me

you’d like to see it sometime

(Sh-bop sh-bop, my baby oooh).

Well meet me

downtown, Baby-Girl.

We’ll ride the bus.

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