{"id":14062,"date":"2017-12-13T12:44:42","date_gmt":"2017-12-13T18:44:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/?p=14062"},"modified":"2017-12-14T12:08:43","modified_gmt":"2017-12-14T18:08:43","slug":"elegy-for-michael-friedman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/archives\/14062","title":{"rendered":"Elegy for Michael Friedman"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michael Friedman, an Obie-winning composer-lyricist who held numerous leadership positions around New York theatre companies, has died at the age of 41\u2026Friedman’s death on September 9 followed complications with HIV\/AIDS.<\/em>
\n ~ Playbill, <\/em>September 09, 2017<\/p>\n

A nuthatch eats a grasshopper
\non my driveway and I realize<\/p>\n

this is a thing I\u2019ve never seen
\nbefore. It\u2019s the kind of thing<\/p>\n

you don\u2019t realize you\u2019ve never seen
\nuntil you see it: the bug is on its back<\/p>\n

and the bird\u2019s twig-thin foot clamps
\nthe belly down as it pecks away<\/p>\n

in cool, quick, jabs. For a moment,
\nI hope\u2014just a leaf? But dawn-light shows<\/p>\n

a dying green leg slowly pedal
\nthrough tiny air. A translucent,<\/p>\n

ripped-off wing\u2014
\niridescent, shimmering\u2014<\/p>\n

lands beside the wheel
\nof my son\u2019s scooter<\/p>\n

and I think of you, Michael,
\nwho I barely knew but did,<\/p>\n

some, in school, when we were young.
\nSenior year you put Auden\u2019s<\/p>\n

Mus\u00e9e Des Beaux Arts<\/em> to music
\nwhich we tried to sing in choir,<\/p>\n

our teenage jaws unlocked around
\nabout<\/em> and wrong<\/em> in the first line.<\/p>\n

Your song\u2019s avant-garde sharps
\nput a tune to our brooding moods,<\/p>\n

but what did I really know of suffering?
\nLike, I backed my nine-seater station wagon<\/p>\n

with the sweet wood paneling
\ninto your sister\u2019s car and cried<\/p>\n

(your parents were so kind).<\/p>\n

Plus I was too tall, and David Cope
\nbroke my heart, and all the other<\/p>\n

getting-taller boys with wrists
\nI could circle with my fingers.<\/p>\n

(You suffered: I will not guess.)<\/p>\n

Space and depth; how does one
\nmeasure the distance between<\/p>\n

where a person is and ends?
\nTake my son, for instance, how<\/p>\n

the baby at my breast
\njust turned eight and likes eggs fried,<\/p>\n

makes a solid corner kick, gels his hair
\nto \u201cmake it Elvis\u201d I tell you<\/p>\n

he will spend an hour under
\nthe bathroom\u2019s harsh fluorescence<\/p>\n

just to sculpt that perfect swoosh.
\nYou settled into such a beautiful man,<\/p>\n

the Google Image search reveals.
\nIt\u2019s been over twenty years\u2014<\/p>\n

I mean isn\u2019t there always somewhere
\nto have to get to\u2014and so I scour<\/p>\n

all the voices\u2014Love and mercy<\/em>\u2014
\nmourning you in finite characters online\u2014<\/p>\n

Only Michael would know how to make sense of this<\/em>\u2014<\/p>\n

any limits on language seeming just as well, as
\nNo<\/em> words<\/em> repeats<\/p>\n

on your sister\u2019s timeline.
\nNo words, There are no words<\/em>,<\/p>\n

for what we finally can see
\nwe\u2019ve never seen before,<\/p>\n

until we witnesses the tragedy
\nin lights because light has to<\/p>\n

shine on this disaster: someone amazing
\ndisappearing into the music we\u2019ll never hear<\/em>.<\/p>\n

* In italics: Twitter and Facebook posts and comments<\/em><\/p>\n

LAUREN GOODWIN SLAUGHTER<\/a><\/h6>\n
<\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michael Friedman, an Obie-winning composer-lyricist who held numerous leadership positions around New York theatre companies, has died at the age of 41\u2026Friedman’s death on September 9 followed complications with HIV\/AIDS. ~ Playbill, September 09, 2017 A nuthatch eats a grasshopper on my driveway and I realize this is a thing I\u2019ve never seen before. It\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1425,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[54],"tags":[25],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Jypy-3EO","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14062"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1425"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14062"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14062\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14140,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14062\/revisions\/14140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp0.vanderbilt.edu\/nashvillereview\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}