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--- R O B E R T S W A R D
Part 2 Fifty-two years later (Part 1 of Robert Sward's Sex & TV With Aunt Miriam - 1945 appeared in Xconnect, January, 1997. Part 2 of this work is new and we are linking to the first portion of Sex & TV because what follows grows out of what came before) "Oh, my God! I can't stand it," she said, hearing my voice. "How are you, Eddie? I've been trying to find you. You're a missing person, you know?" "I write, I've even published," I said. "I talked to that publisher of yours. Famous you're not." "I know, I know. And what about you, Miriam?" "I got some health problems. I go to temple, the B'nai Brith." "And Uncle Jerry?" "Dead. That's why I'm calling, Eddie. He's dead. Fifty-four years we'd been together." Uncle Jerry, the handsomest man in Chicago, circa 1945, singer on Chicago's WGN Radio. "No one thought it would work. Fifty-four years and we yelled all the time. What does anyone know about anything?" she said. "You stuck it out," I say. "That's good."
She's twenty-one, twenty-two, "Woof, woof." "That's Koko. That dog has a weight problem. She doesn't want to move so I let her sleep on our bed. Koko is on morphine." "Your dog is on morphine?" "Did you ever hear of such a thing? Listen, you're all I got, Eddie, you're all the family that's left." She wants me to fly to Chicago to see her. "Do I have to draw you a picture? Come, Eddie. Come and see the sights."
We lie together... Betty Grable mouth She's pushing eighty, she says, and sells Avon. "It's a living." I'm grateful, I want to say. I'm grateful for the arrows. Whatever else has changed, I will always remember.
The aurora borealis,
I understand, Miriam, these are the ties that bind.
sweet land of liberty, |
© crossconnect, inc 1995-2006
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published in association with the
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university of pennsylvania's
kelly writers house
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