ROY NATHANSON

Myra Minelli’s Third Act

A palmetto pink house by an alligator creek,
A peace sign on a Styrofoam wig drawn by a teenage son,
Jeweled glasses hanging from her neck—
Myra clutches a Manhattan, shuts the front door.
The car sweeps past palmettos onto the Dixie.
The car door opens. The moon is full. The Ramada is not.
“Myra’s” petrified smile enters the lounge.
A second Manhattan graces the Grand’s ledge.
“Memories,” of Brooklyn’s Claire de Lune,
“light the corners of her mind.”

Back in the pink house, the son and daughter explore
what’s left of the Frigidaire’s endless TV dinners.
The U-haul parks just beyond the “for-sale” sign

Myra pumps the piano’s clunky sustain, considers
her eldest son’s desperate pleas.
Helpless, she focuses her gaze on the bar.
A man resembling her absent husband nurses
his “Chicago Fizz.” His eyes find Myra’s.
Myra shut hers and turns towards the clueless night.
Overtones arpeggiate past the man, past the bar,
up the spiral staircase. A sympathetic vibration
of notes and pleas shakes the chandeliers.
The notes die. The man at the bar begins to sing:
“Blue skies Smilin’ at me, nothin’ but blue skies do I see.”

Myra stops playing. Clasps her hands to her belt.
The 5 th Manhattan spills onto her red satin dress.
Her eyes stay shut. She imagines the chaos. The next,
last Florida morning. The distraught son, packing the U haul.
“Myra” and daughter picking through clothes and pictures.
What to leave. What to take. Tables, chairs, glasses—
She’d leave everything but the piano—the silent house,
The silly stupid name, the night sky, even the morning dew.

ROY NATHANSON is a saxophonist/poet, composer. He has written 2 books of poems: Conversations and Other Songs on Mad Hat Press (2020) and Subway Moon on Buddy’s Knife Editions of Hamburg (2008. ) His poems and stories have appeared in Commonweal, 5AM, Natural Bridge, Maggid, The Brooklyn Rail, Plume. and other publications. Roy has written songs for Mavis Staples, Jimmy Scott, Elvis Costello, Debbie Harry, Jeff Buckley, and others and has recorded 10 CDs with his longtime band The Jazz Passengers. His most recent record “Small Things” (NYXO Records) features Nick Hakim singing Roy’s poems. When the pandemic started, Roy played sax from his Flatbush balcony for 82 straight days at precisely 5pm and now runs a porch concert school there.   He teaches courses in poetry and music at Gallatin College/NYU.  and is the recipient of Bessie and Joseph Jefferson Awards and grants from Chamber Music America, The Rockefeller Foundation and 2 NYFA grants.