Who will remember the least among us
The man alluded to below once lived and breathed and walked and rollerskated the lengths of Santa Barbara's State Street and along the city's shoreline walkways and bike paths. He smiled his nearly toothless grin at everyone he encountered. There was no missing him or leaving his presence unaffected by the sheer force of his palatable bliss.
He meant it.
I never knew him but for the thousand times I saw him winging his way about town, infecting everyone who encountered him with a momentary lightness. Such people are so necessary. I only knew him by the name in the title. This then for him, and all the others like him who make this world inhabitable.
Jonesy In Red
Who will remember the least among us, not to mention
those of us who each day dressed in red tights and yellow
shoes, crowned ourselves with sprigs of heady laurels wreathed
in careless twists of whatever flowers the day emplaced there?
Who will remember the invisible of us who purposely lost the compass in our souls so that we might happily wander the crowded avenues of a tender madness that beckoned from dim lit thresholds, tethered restless trains that held the rail for our dear departures into trackless territories that asked of us only a broadworn smile as passage enough?
And who will look deeply into our ageless eyes, past the
frost thin hair and the rootless teeth, peer into the places we
surrendered to wonder all we tried in vain to make sense of?
I remember you, Jonesy, you who flitted the sidewalks costumed so, bejeweled and glistened with handfuls of gleam scattered like seedburst to coax smiles from ensuddened grimaces that crossed your fritillary path, the eighty-plus years that arrived you at this selfless avocation with nothing more than a whimsical message of contagious joy.
Who will remember the least among us?
For as long as I’m able, I will.
I will.
Joseph Gallo
December 19, 2004
He meant it.
I never knew him but for the thousand times I saw him winging his way about town, infecting everyone who encountered him with a momentary lightness. Such people are so necessary. I only knew him by the name in the title. This then for him, and all the others like him who make this world inhabitable.
Jonesy In Red
Who will remember the least among us, not to mention
those of us who each day dressed in red tights and yellow
shoes, crowned ourselves with sprigs of heady laurels wreathed
in careless twists of whatever flowers the day emplaced there?
Who will remember the invisible of us who purposely lost the compass in our souls so that we might happily wander the crowded avenues of a tender madness that beckoned from dim lit thresholds, tethered restless trains that held the rail for our dear departures into trackless territories that asked of us only a broadworn smile as passage enough?
And who will look deeply into our ageless eyes, past the
frost thin hair and the rootless teeth, peer into the places we
surrendered to wonder all we tried in vain to make sense of?
I remember you, Jonesy, you who flitted the sidewalks costumed so, bejeweled and glistened with handfuls of gleam scattered like seedburst to coax smiles from ensuddened grimaces that crossed your fritillary path, the eighty-plus years that arrived you at this selfless avocation with nothing more than a whimsical message of contagious joy.
Who will remember the least among us?
For as long as I’m able, I will.
I will.
Joseph Gallo
December 19, 2004
post-time 5:31 PM
2 Comments:
Oh, Joseph, this is a beautiful tribute. Very touching. And through it some of us will remember others like Jonesy who've touched our lives just by living their own way. Thank you for that.
Beautiful, Joseph! Oftentimes have we entertained angels unawares.
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