Uncle David’s Song
As I listen to a long-lost tape
sung with no instrumental accompaniment,
I remember Uncle David’s songs
and how I used to sit beside him and gaze into his face
while he sang melodies from his childhood.
Though I did not know their source,
his melodies captivated me
as he swayed with the words, “by by by….”
What was hidden in those words
below the depths of “by, by-by?”
Slowly, meditatively, “by-by by,”
faster, more intensely, “by-by-by,”
the melody swirled, flowing from a lost world
into an English drawing room that was totally unaware
of what was lost,
of a princess who was lost.
Ruth Fogelman © 2008