I was sitting at the bar drinking a Trooper, mouthing the words to “We Are The Road Crew” and trying to devise a strategy to defeat The Famous Kuma Burger when I read the news.

I came to Chicago with a notebook and every intention of beginning a story for my children; the one that has been floating in and out of my slumber deprived mind since I became a stay at home dad. But now, with the kids sleeping marginally more consistently and beginning a less daddy dominated educational path, my head has been able to breathe in more than just our .37 acre world…ah…only to exhale a swamping of smelly toddler like babble in dire need of pen and paper for order but those thoughts have been momentarily muted with… 

Seeing you at Radio City Music Hall, wondering if I was the youngest soul not dragged there by their parents…

How the years may have faded my Santa Fe “I have tried in my way to be free” tattoo but the mantra still pilots my “Bird On A Wire” mentality…

That unsent letter I wrote you when I was living in Madison alone, cold and drunk, then I remembered you were at Mt. Baldy broke, refraining but ordained…

The night at Merriweather Post when my wife whispered in my ear that you were the sexiest old man she’d ever seen and I agreed…

How just yesterday I listened to Songs of Love and Hate, the copy with the orange A&P thin sliced sticker in the corner from Aunt Dana’s record collection…

That my daughter knows you are the author of the Shrek song I often catch her singing to herself through the baby monitor, Lord how it pleases me….

That the last time I visited this city it was to attend my college fraternity national convention but I skipped it to spend the day in the Water Works photocopying “Death of a Lady’s Man” and then ditched my brothers attempts to get into bars with fake out of state ID’s for a park bench, a yellow Hi-Liter and a pack of Cigarillos…

Ah again…so this morning I sit in a coffee shop under the brown line yearning for tea and oranges but settling for a cup of black local roast and writing.

L. Cohen, Sincerely

I thank you.