to enjoy

as M. continues her way of life diet,
went solo, i did, to Pasquali’s.
half rigatoni with asparagus sauce and bacon,
oh, Serena you can cook; top of the world, ma.

back on the planet and the little bus to Angelo’s for coffee
when a common laborer comes in for his sips of mocha,
tells Simone that exactly one year from today
the Mayan Calendar ends and the world with it.

i say i read that fifty years ago when i was eleven.
it is amazing how time keeps passing.
and worker-man said it is good that it does,
for all the experience of life time gives us to enjoy.

ibid

At the end of a 1930’s gangster movie, Jimmy Cagney was on the roof of a burning building shooting his machine gun, put his head back and yelled out, “Top of the world, Ma.” My use of the line in this poem was a reference to that.