the death of Townes Van Zandt

the death of Townes Van Zandt

fiction
edward w pritchard

Walking by I found a man laying on the sidewalk choking. Lifting up his head he began to shudder and shake. He said he was Townes Van Zandt the singer. He seemed unnaturally feeble and frail.

No one else was about so I sat with him and hoped someone would stop by soon to help. I tried to make him comfortable. To me he seemed to be dying and knowing his music this saddened me. He seemed to be decomposing before my eyes. Finally deconstructing he asked me to contact his ex wife.

Helping to carry him upstairs to the apartment a little latter to cheer him I said "sometimes a cover can be better than the original"[1]. Sizing me up through his grief, melancholy and pain Townes said, to me, "poetry ain't worth a damn if it isn't set to music." As I was shooed out of the apartment I heard him say"why bother?"

About a year later I heard Townes Van Zandt the singer had died up in New York.

[1] Van Zandt covered "dead flowers"by the rolling stones and some people have the audacity to say a cover can sometimes be better than the original.