A bohemian neighbor on Horatio Street, in the West Village, asks you to join her and others from the New York art scene for their monthly blind date club. You are invited as Andy Warhol’s guest. Suffering from GI issues after sustaining the gunshot wound, he wants to meet doctors.

Arriving directly from work to the Odeon restaurant, you are seated by him. Folks are jovial and chatty, though Andy is quiet and pensive. He pulls a crystal out of his pocket, intent on sharing his healing secret. You mention how you enjoyed collecting them as a child.

to believe 
cumulus clouds dot a sky 
a higher purpose 

If he hadn’t asked so directly, you would have never told him what he needs. A capable primary care doctor to oversee his health. You add that crystals will not heal him. You see his ego deflate. He stops speaking. Whenever a dinner guest points a camera at you, Andy turns away. In hindsight, you might have simply tried to have some fun.

art meets medicine 
soup cans to stethoscope 
and sinking stones 

Publisher’s Note:

See the article “Inside the Gastronomic World of Andy Warhol, Closet Chocoholic” by Nadja Sayej at Vice entertainment news (20 April 2019), which includes a photograph by Warhol confidante Paige Powell, from her series Artists Eating, of Keith Haring, Andy Warhol, and guest Dr. Barry Gingell at The Odeon brasserie (link retrieved on 10 December 2025):
https://www.vice.com/en/article/andy-warhol-food/

Kirk Lawson

lives in Ulster County, New York surrounded by the Shawangunk Mountains. He enjoys poetry as a creative outlet to explore and enhance meaning in living. His writing is published in Discretionary Love; The Ekphrastic Review; The Healing Muse; Kaleidoscope Magazine; The Mackinaw; Months to Years; Pulse: voices from the heart of medicine; and Thorn & Bloom Magazine. Kirk is grateful to be on this journey with husband Jim and dog Leo.