What was the name of that
bar was it really the Sugar
Club is it still there who were
we with running in from the cold
and wind and you could still
smoke in bars then you could
still go home with six cartons
of smoke in your hair we all
had hair for days then our
hands got lost in it and our faces
and how crowded the bar was
and hot too and I liked running and
being useful and you and ran back
to the blue Chevy Nova to stash
our coats in the trunk and ran
back and “Lush Life” was playing
and Bowie and yelling to be
heard and the lights in the bar
flashing because that part
of the night was ending and out
we went to the street it was Hoboken
it was 1983 right before Christmas
and I turned left and everybody
else went in the other direction and
this way you said and I said no
no I ought to know I’m the one
who ran back to the car with all
our coats and the key and who
could have guessed what are
the odds that it was somebody
else’s car our key unlocked and
that blue Nova was long gone
to Teaneck or Long Branch or
Secaucus and we looked and
looked in the empty dark of our
car’s trunk it was like looking
for gold at the 7-Eleven and
someone said how stupid could
you be and it wasn’t a question and
one of us couldn’t stop crying knowing
someone had her yellow coat and
maybe her whole life to come and
what are the odds forty summers
later here we are on a hilltop in Italy
and you tell the story but in this
version it’s you and your pals
from high school in Maplewood
Joey and Emma and Gabe and
what’s-his-name and as it happens it
happened before I ever knew you
you say so I was never there
and the name of the place
was Sugar Reef on Second Avenue
in the city not in Hoboken and
down there in the dusk of the valley
lights are coming on and above
us swallows and clouds like
threads from a jacket unravelling
and from some hidden speaker
Lady Day is singing Sugar
I never maybe my sugar—
maybe as an action item—
imagine—and if I never was
here please please don’t tell me