09/02/2013
Miss ROMANA
I didn't know her very well
She knew I loved her act.
I know she loved quiet conversation.
She was a survivor, not a fighter.
Fighters eventually need rescue,
She was a warrior. Warriors don't fight. Warriors live till there is no more life.
She loved her life, not fooled by its circumstance.
She knew what she looked like in the lime light, literally.
She also knew what the janitor, sweeping the hallway, saw. After the applause, after the roses and champagne. With your foot falls as company in the common light of every mans' everyday.
I didn't know her very well.
She only called me twice.
She only invited me to her company twice.
When we spoke, it was in confidence.
On two occasions she made open pronouncements about me. They were dismissed offhand.
This is not a lamentation. This was her showing me that she was well aware of her real status.
She was so damn clever.
I say she was a wonderful teacher with full knowledge of the the vapidity. I would feel less silly saying that about the breaking dawn or the setting sun.
These words require salt water to break free, so excuse me while I blink my eyes.
Her great talent as a teacher was to "see" your "in", then "call or raise". And you better know how to play to stay in that game. The table is covered with good hands thrown in.
I didn't know Romana very well.
She showed me how to see what I was looking at.
That the on spring or Offspring only mattered in restoring the spring....in somebody's step.
That it didn't matter how much or how little you said or taught but the timing.
If you were willing, she would fill you with code, and when the time was right, drop the key. And you might be tempted to turn the moment into a mile marker in the past lane or to step on the gas to get ahead,but to her, it was Tuesday and you were there.
I didn't know Romana very well.
On one occasion she sat across from me at lunch.
She leaned into me and sotto voce, asked, "how much Pilates do you know? Aback, I blurted," not much Miss Romana" she narrowed her eyes into an "and." But, the little I know, I know very well". She leaned back into her chair and I witnessed an entire body, smile.
I didn't know Romana very well.
I got one breathing lesson from her. In the course of a session, in a stage aside, loud enough for me to hear, but more for the benefit of my wife who took notes, she said," don't breathe so much".
On another occasion she took an extra moment to advise me on my attitude in my workouts.
"Just be more... La la la"
I'm full of envy of all who knew her better than I
When the last note of taps is printing into memory.
Look away beyond what you can see.
I'm snapping to
In a final salute
et