Birthday Number Sixty Four

not to let it slip,
but was smoking a joint
on the las vegas strip

beautiful night
my name up in lights
really quite jarring
to see the word, "starring"

it was invigorating and even more
on birthday number sixty four

this has been the only birthday that has, in any way, gotten into my mind in many a year, probably since i turned 30.

i am certain it is due to the beatles' song, "...will you still need me, will you still feed me, when i'm 64?" i first heard the beatles when i was in prison in california, way back in the early '60's.

back then,
i was doing time
for crimes
that i surely had committed.

as i walked out of that prison in early '65, the guard at the gate said to me, "you'll be back." i said, "no, i won't." to which he replied, "your kind never changes."

well, i came back to california all right,
but it was to do the tonight show. lol.

when in prison, i was considered to be a security risk to the prison! i spent almost two years in solitary confinement, disciplinary segregation. i became a beatles fan while in the hole. now, i am ringo starr's favorite comic. a turnaround of such proportions that even now i cannot fully comprehend.

and now,
i am still doing time.
but on a stage,
not in a cage
and art gets the commitment


all these thoughts
and more
brought on
by birthday number sixty four.


10-19-42 to 10-19-2006
sixty four years
and you ain't seen nothin' yet.