City of Legends

Blow out the candles, my electric lady.

Think I have forgotten? You inspired so many of my most revered works:

• My Electric Lady
• Monument
• Sons of Soft Sin
• the sorrow of past errors
• tread softly
• I should have been immortal
• Nevermore My Steel
• the lingering haste
• theocricide at Mach 10e6
• last night
• and many, many more…

You were perhaps more my midwife than my lover, the one who pulled me out, smacked me on the behind and set me on the path. There is no doubt but that much of what I am, for good or bad, as a writer, as a poet, as a man, came from you. You opened my eyes, taught me many things I still cling to, fed my intellect, my soul and my spirit, and taught me my first lessons of love and artistic conflict. If in the sphere of Venus I learned war, you were the advance scout and the general who sent me.

I can still name the time and date of our first kiss, our first touch, of the last time we spoke and when I heard of your mother’s death. I know you will hear of this because I know you have people, if not you yourself, who visit this site from time to time.

Happy Birthday. I hope you are well, strong and happy. You are missed and celebrated. I always told you, be first, last or best at anything you value. You are immortal.