I never actually met Cousin Bruce. In fact, I hardly know anything about him, except that he may either have been involved in some distantly mafia related activity or that he may simply have gotten mixed up with the wrong crowd back in the 1970s, depending on which relative I asked. And I don’t even know how he and I were related or whether he was really, in fact, a cousin.
What I do know is that he lived in Paris, his adopted city, and presumably died there, because that’s where I’ve heard that his funeral is either taking place tomorrow or already took place a few days ago. And I know that he was a world class poet.
To get a little taste of Cousin Bruce’s poetry, I invite all my readers to visit poetry.com and do a search there for firstname bruce and lastname nurock. There you will be introduced to some of the finest literary gems ever composed in the English language, from the classics “Bad AOL” and “Cheesecake” to the stirringly patriotic “September 11, 2001″ and “Operation Enduring Freedom” to the introspective “My Writing.”
Bruce will be missed and his absence will be felt by all those who loved him, and by those who loved those who loved him, and also by those who loved them, as well as by those of us who never got to meet him because he lived on a different continent, in a country that we don’t really ever want to visit. I think it’s also fair to say that the poetry-loving world will never be quite the same.
RIP Cousin Bruce 19??-2008
Bruce was my partner in my travel business and I spoke with him a few days before he died a very painful death in Paris. He was my best friend.
Dave Deringer