There’s a movie where Ethan Hawke calls you
a sweaty toothed madman,
Neruda kept pictures of you on his desk,
Kerouac told the world about Specimen Days.
You lived the last nineteen years of your life in Camden
about a half hour south of the house I grew up in.
They named a bridge into Philadelphia after you,
but I never took it
because it was a toll bridge.
Now that I realize how much I owe you,
I’ll be sure to take that bridge
and pay that 4 dollar toll.
Brian Whitney is a writer of prose and poetry. He grew up in East Brunswick, New Jersey, and has spent the last 3 years living in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His prose has previously appeared in Juncture: A Writerly Magazine.
*/?>
