He had just seen Patti LaBelle

belt out “Somewhere Over The

Rainbow” for the President of

the United States and he felt the

tears well up, not for Patti, who

certainly doesn’t need his tears —

she’s going so strong at seventy,

and not even for Judy Garland,

who is way beyond his tears,

but for Eva Cassidy who sang

the most beautiful, heart-wrench-

ing version he had ever heard

and who died at a young and

tender age from skin cancer

and, of course, for all those

who cried, why, oh why can’t

I and then died young and may-

be a bit for himself as he sits

here missing them.