Let the Gravity Move You

It was fashionable in my day for parents to ask, “If a friend told you to jump off a cliff, would you?” Well, it turns out, I would.

During my recent trip to Canada, I reconnected with my childhood friend Scott Crabbe, whom I hadn’t seen since about 1988. In fact, I found him on a poetry site via a Google search. Surprised to find that his two-year-old email address still worked, I got a reply back from him in the form of a poem, no less, which referred to things we did as kids.

THE NUMBER’S ON THE WALL TONIGHT

KXL!!! –

and the smell of back alley tree lots
the sound of the pop
when you lost the plot
and bounced the bottle
off the head of the littlest Hawk
in the daze of our youth
we were the sleuth
the criminals reared
not necessarily feared
and most likely (at times) smeared
our names
upon the walls
surrounding urinal stalls.

Yeah,
it’s been a long day
at 1:30 in the A. (I’) M.
fine
tired
wired
from cigarettes and beer
but it’s all here
three screens
two guitars
a husky
a hussy writing letter’s to her fantasy out east

a beast of a belly
swelly
from a meal of
chicken veal
spag bog blu

And this moment was for you.

Not having much time during my stay in Canada, I took 24 hours out of my schedule to drive to Jasper for a visit. Currently, Scott is the manager of the Jasper International Hostel. How convenient. And how cool! We hung out for the night, ate an awesome breakfast wrap in the morning, swapped stories, and basically had a great time catching up. I brought a cassette tape of a “radio show” that we had recorded when we were about 8. A good laugh, and I was impressed at the sharpness of Scott’s memory. He showed me a postcard I had drawn for him in art class from about the same time. Good times.

Before I had to go that afternoon, we went for a short hike, and then Scott took me to Horseshoe Lake to get “baptized” Canadian style. It was a 10-m drop into a crystal-clear, bottomless lake. And so cold I stopped breathing. Awesome! Here’s Scott’s performance:

Thanks for the great time, Scott. It was awesome!