It was thirty years ago today that Tim Dlugos died at age forty of AIDS. Tim was a poet of enormous talent and creative energy. He was beloved by many, myself included. His warmth, humor, and congeniality made him very easy to like. When his friend David Trinidad brought out Tim's collected poems (A Fast Life) in 2011, I was impressed by how much great work Tim had produced in his short life. Like so many others, I still miss him and, as the poem below demonstrates, still dream about him.
The Next Best Thing
I am having lunch in the humongous
cafeteria at my workplace. I’m not sure
what my job is, but the cafeteria is packed.
I scan the room and see that my best friend,
Michael David Lally, is sitting alone ten or so
tables across from me. So I go to join him.
But just as I start heading his way, he bolts up
from his chair and scoots off to another table
where Conway Twitty is also having lunch.
Conway is alone and looks like a successful
businessman. He has glasses and wears a suit.
I can’t imagine why he is in our cafeteria,
but he and Michael seem to be in an instant
intense conversation and I don’t feel that I should
interrupt them. Their faces are only an inch apart.
Then I am in front of the Childe Harold, a great
bar in Dupont Circle that went out of business
some time back. I’m sitting on the little brick
wall in front waiting for Tim Dlugos. We’re
having lunch together. I haven’t seen him since
he died and am hoping I won’t have trouble
recognizing him. But along he comes, looking
older but good. He has very long hair, mostly gray,
and he’s clutching a briefcase from which papers
seem to be tumbling. It’s so good to see him again.
Bernard Welt happens along. I want to invite him
to join us for lunch, but I also feel selfish about
seeing Tim. We have so much to catch up on.
So I don’t invite Bernie, and feel a little guilty about it.
I am trying to call him Bernard rather than Bernie,
just as I want people to call me Terence rather
than Terry, but I ask him if he would mind if
I started calling him “Bernardie” instead.
Tim thinks that’s funny. Then we part ways.
11/28/2020
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Here is a Tim Dlugos post I wrote for this site in 2008. There's a good bit of information online about Tim, including sites that offer examples of his work. This DC site is especially good. Tim's greatest poem is, arguably, "G-9," which can be found here.