Frank Russell at home in his Tampa studio, 2004
Photo: Al Young

for Frank Russell
(a.k.a. Dr. Rocksteady,
1951-2008)
and Betty Moss

In the Imax picture of your lives, directed
by Hal Hartley, you survive everything,
even doubt, your own especially, on the way
out of all this to be or not to be, a distinction
Buddhists never cop to – ahhh, exhale bigtime
in this whopping world of motherless mutts.

Inhale. It’s happy hour at the oxygen bar
you favor, a dive that packs more punch
and flavor to every breath and step
you take than all the whipped foam of talk.
“Walk right in,“ you say to all the stunning,
unnumbered dimensions. Time and mind
conspire. Combined yet again, all ends
and beginnings equal all the journeys you take.

Dear Frank: Like a medieval monk, you copy
and lobby knowledge, know-how, info, data,
dada and consciousness – these keys to our species’
doorways duplicate and multiply. But, you, Betty,
hardly Heloise to some Abelard, you nurture
culture and acculturate. What mates you make!

Wherever time and mind go gung-ho, you go,
Should it surprise you or you or you or you
that consciousness rising can’t always recognize
the you you think is you as you-for-real?
In this sung deal, heart is all and everything.

The picture triumphs; love trumps despair.
Box office, be gone! From here we plow the field.

As for parallel universes, Dr. Rocksteady
and Betty — the surest seem the ones you share.

Al Young
Copyright © 2008 by Al Young

Betty Moss, Tampa 2004 | Al Young

Skippy | Al Young

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