Tuesday, March 16, 2021

First Heard It When I Turned 13

  

What is left to us really, an
An awkward cotillion in
Hazmat tuxedos? 
It goes without saying,
Gowns --crackle of fabric 
Fills our haunted hall and
All our wishes whisper from
The floor: we can't hear
The music anymore.
Strange to think confusion's
Call and random chance
Left us this ball, this dance.
                                                   

6 comments:

  1. Aw. It's really hard for me to imagine nostalgia over that song! But I liked your poem.

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    1. Dear Mitty, for some reason I loved that song --and Mr. Pickett's several subsequent recordings on Doctor Demento's broadcasts over the years. He was part of the medium that just had fun, and we needed that. I also remember Karloff singing "Tiptoe Through The Tulips" around that time on a variety show. We needed fun. I'm so glad you like my poem. It was fun to write.

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  2. That's a beautiful poem, no matter what inspired it.

    Love,
    Janie

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    1. Most kind, Janie. Pickett's performance in the clip took place in 2004, only 3 years before he left us. It was, I believe, his only "top 40" hit popularized (1963) when this country was entering a stunningly sad decade of assassinations predicted in Eisenhower's speech:"Beware the military-industrial complex."

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  3. I think the poem uses a song we all knew well back in the day to explain something current, the pandemic. Wonderful connection. Not quite a "what goes around comes around", I think, but a neat application of old to new.

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    1. Dear Joanne, there are times when I suspect we are figments in the minds of future beings learning the basics of coexistence.

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