PEARL

Today, December 7, is Pearl Harbor Day. Because of that, a good friend, and perhaps first partner, was born in a detention camp in Topaz, Utah. 

On September 1, 1976, a bearded Japanese-American man, whom I had seen on occasion, wrote his name and phone number on the back of a fellow Sloane’s employee’s business card, and left it for me. That’s how I met Gary Murakami. He later told me he had been loaded, or he wouldn’t have been so bold. I hadn’t noticed. September 1st was Mother and Dad’s 39th wedding anniversary.

We started seeing each other. And for several years, I spent more time at Gary’s place on Pierce Street than at home on 23rd. Several times I offered to move, so that we could find a place together. But he hesitated. Gary said he could never live with me. Later, I learned that was because of a dependence problem. He thought he could disguise it, if we didn’t live together. But we virtually lived at his place—a tiny studio with a bath and kitchen. It was very elegant – in a modern, Japanese fashion. Gary was a wonderful cook, and a beautiful man. He had had several lung operations as a teenager, and had matching scars from his nipples, under the arms to his back. He called them his angel wings. His lungs were atrophying, and would eventually have killed him. I think that added to his anxiety, and contributed to his alcohol dependence.

When I first met Gary I wrote:

SYNTHESIS
OF EAST
AND WEST
DIVORCED
FROM LINGUAL
HERITAGE
BY RANK
INJUSTICE
ALL IN BUT
ONE DAY
MANY ENEMIES
AGO

CONFISCATED
PROPERTY
BROKEN
PORCELAIN
TRANSPLANTED
PEARL
CAST
IN THE DESERT
UNTO
SWINEHERDS
IN UTAH

AFTER CROWDED
STABLES
DARKENED
TRAINS
TO BE ABANDONED
IN THE WILDERNESS

BORN
IN ISOLATION
AMID SALT FLATS
AND DESERT FLOWERS
PERHAPS

PARENTAL
RETICENCE
UNDERSTANDABLE
WITH RIGHTFUL
DIGNITY

AWAITING
RESTORATION
EVEN NOW
OVERDUE

AN ONLY SON
WITH FAMILIAL
OBLIGATIONS
AND HOPE
OF MANY
FUTURES

DESPITE
THE PAST
OR BECAUSE
OF LARGER
PASTS
A STYLE
IMPECCABLE
AND SERENE
WHITES
AND WICKERS
TAILORED
APPROPRIATENESS
SIMPLE
ELEGANCE
TRANQUILITY

CAN THERE BE
NO BITTERNESS?

###

BEAUTY SEEN
EXPERIENCED
AND TRANSMITTED

MAY I KNOW MORE?


He said yes-- for almost five years. But Gary was always extremely moody on Pearl Harbor Day.