That Cheesy (Not Chintzy) Black Shirt

The Great Plotnik accompanied The Poet Large Pants last night at a poetry reading at a local bookstore. The piano was in tune and the Poet Large Pants was too. It was a fun evening, and PLP's poems are more and more beautiful every year.

Plot has been playing mostly guitar lately, so it's been awhile since he had his back to an audience. His fingers hit the keys and the audience went silent. He kept playing. Nobody was saying anything. Plotnik thought: "Uh oh."

Here is Plotnik's favorite spot in 'Stepping Out,' where The Poet Large Pants describes wearing his favorite cheesy (not chintzy) black shirt:

"You wear it on a Friday night
when the weather’s warm
and the light of the sinking summer sun
is kissing the highest palisades
of the apartment buildings on your street,
lighting up the bricks like a pinball machine
without the bells, and the breeze is rustling
through the chestnut leaves
and you have an hour to entertain a thought
of how God will feel when it’s all over,
when the universe is all played out

and you, God, have Nothing on your mind anymore,
and you notice that having Nothing on your mind
is your highest function, greater even than spinning out
star nebulae, or blowing the top off of Mount Etna,
or crafting the Hawaiian Islands, or squeezing up
Mt. Everest like a giant pimple of dirt.
Having Nothing on your mind is higher than all these,
subtler than the Northern Lights, compelling
as the perfect wave. That’s when you wear this shirt,
when you feel like God stepping out
into a new universe, and you feel good."