New Year’s Valediction

2022

         I dreamt we threw a party. Guess who came to dinner? Sidney Poitier for sure. Right after him a favorite of mine arrived, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, an honorable politician. Joan Didion slouched over near the piano where Stephen Sondheim sat playing.

      “Send in the clowns,” she said, and as if on cue, John Madden blustered in the door talking and waving his arms ... till Betty White elbowed him in the ribs that Archbishop Tutu was about to say grace.

         Candles flickered on the mantel. Conversations floated around the room like so many poems. Outside, snow fell in darkness past Christmas lights lingering on the eaves while deliciousness wafted in from the kitchen. We sat down around the table ...

         I hope there is a Heaven and that I’d been given a sneak peek at that dinner party.