On the Market

Thirty-five years before these phrases,
A half-a-dozen acquaintances
Were out on the town in Manhattan—

One of the group a young movie star
And two others her college roommates,
Now also in the film industry

Not anywhere near so famously—
One having landed bit parts only,
One now a properties manager.

They’d brought three young men to pair with them—
A semi-famous skateboarding champ
Dating the rising star, a handsome

Assistant producer, the boyfriend
Of the properties manager, and
The assistant producer’s old friend

From grad school, brought on as a blind date
For the roommate of bit parts, of course,
Assortative dating hierarchy.

Tired of cool bars by wee morning hours,
They decamped to the skateboarder’s house,
A two-story rental in SoHo,

Where Lennon first lived with Ono,
Still owned by Yoko, long since widowed.
The skateboarder had a custom ramp

Constructed in the narrow back yard,
And at four am while somewhat stoned
He did tricks for them under the lights.

The house was bare and boring. No one
Had any good anecdotes about
John and Yoko. The young movie star

Fell asleep, and all the rest of them
Slipped out to get taxis before dawn.
Next day, the assistant producer

And the properties manager flew
Back to California, to the set
Of the movie they were working on.

The blind date and the roommate confined
To bit parts coincidentally
Shared a birthday. The following week,

They went out on that birthday to catch
A Gene Hackman vehicle in which
She had a bit part as a victim

Strangled by Gene Hackman’s nemesis.
They never saw each other again.
Within a few years, none of them knew

What had happened to the other friends,
Except that the couples both broke up,
And the young movie star ascended

To Hollywood’s upper stratosphere
As princess of the rom-com genre
Before slowly fading out of view.

The Lennon-Ono house on Broome St
Went through decades of different uses.
Sean put it on the market last week.