SZEGED

The girls in Szeged like to wear white.
White skirts― tight.
White pants― tight white.

September 1st seventy years ago,
Germany attacked Poland
while simultaneously being attacked by Russia.
It was the beginning of a war that took fifty million lives.
One of them was my Uncle Kenneth,
and today in a church I said a prayer for him,
and then later outside
an old woman, a kindly type,
she looked like a grandmother at least 75― asked for an autograph.
She had on a very colorful print dress. She seemed sweet.
I said, “Yes” and granted her wish,
signed her piece of paper and while walking away
I heard her say, "Auf Wiedersehen."

—Michael Madsen, written in Szeged, Hungary 9/01/09

FALSE WITNESS

On the way to LAX once again,
Rene picked me up in a black town car
and we started talking the way we always have,
and I found out more about him, as I usually do.
This time it was about Dean Martin back in the day.
I guess Dean Martin came up because Rene was playing a Best of CD
starting with Return to Me, a haunting melody.
Anyway, after hearing about Frank and Sammy—
Frank apparently always sullen, and Sammy always forcing Rene to
roll a pair of dice for a tip, we agreed that Joey Bishop was probably
the best gentleman of the bunch.

Birds became the next topic, for some reason
and I remember having written a poem about birds in a cage
and Rene said he wished sometimes to free his parakeets
and I told him I had once done that with mine on a long, drunken
afternoon
and they had flown into the sea to drown.
At the time it seemed so sad and I wrote about it that way,
But today at the airport I read a long article in a Malibu magazine
about the great writer John Fante, and the memory of the birds wasn’t
sad anymore.
In fact, I think their 25 seconds of freedom were inglorious.
And drunk or sober, I’m glad I did it.

Later, Rene said he got into trouble from dispatch
for not having enough air conditioning out in Palm Springs
while driving tourists and that they didn’t care about Frank Sinatra
when told that he used to live there and the car was so hot Rene said he
was sweating like a false witness
Perhaps Brad Pitt should take a little ride with Rene and maybe he
might learn something.

—Michael Madsen, written in Kentucky 8/16/09