Animals Have You Forgotten What We Were Like Then When...

Animals

  Have you forgotten what we were like then
       when we were still first rate
       and the day came fat with an apple in its mouth
      
       it's no use worrying about Time
       but we did have a few tricks up our sleeves
       and turned some sharp corners
      
       the whole pasture looked like our meal
       we didn't need speedometers
       we could manage cocktails out of ice and water
      
       I wouldn't want to be faster
       or greener than now if you were with me O you
       were the best of all my days
                       - Frank O'Hara 1950
From the Collected Works of Frank O'Hara, 1971, by Maureen Granville-Smith, Alfred A. Knopf