the song remembers the song

by doreen peri

Posted to Poetry on 2003-02-02 19:06:00

Parent message is 374034
somebody treats
treats with with chemical misunderstanding,
possibly, all puffed up with negatively ,
slanting the progressions of key signatures,
attorney’s offering cases, name changes,
erases of mothers

i used to have a friend smuggling reefer
from the border in rattlesnake cages
who’s gonna look?
who’s gonna look?

there are influences we won’t admit
sometimes some influences fit for
the growth of a child. some smiles
are real, some fake.
we take what we can
and give back what we
hope will be received,
graciously.

everybody tries.
sometimes the treats are sweet,
sometimes they are neatly placed
in four four time, timing being
the everything that it is and sometimes
gifts of grandmother’s rocking chairs

and fathers

who have the privilege of being there
while others who wish they could have been
but couldn’t, and then there are
years later, years later, years
eaten up coming later, beaten
up by questioning.

i was in my bedroom and it was 6:30 in the morning
and i thought something was dripping because
of the determined beat of time, moments measured
out like rhyme but all it was,
the cat’s feet
on eighty eight keys

we pad through,
paws ahead of pause,
learning to retract
our claws.

the song remembers the song, the lyrics
longing, fear admitted, admission paid with traded
tones and sacrifice