PART III
You speak those words
And whisper in low tones
Your number
Slide your card through
And I'll return
I replied
With titillating drones,
"Credit denied"
You're unqualified
To date me
I'm not a bank
You see
I don't give out loans
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I left my heart in San Francisco
man did that hurt;
To tear that beating organ out
and leave it in the dirt
Those cobbled streets, the trolley cars,
the guys know how to flirt
I left my heart in San Francisco
And man, how it did hurt
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"You ought'n to a told that!"
T' walls, they hear you talk
They see you when you're all alone
And have secured each lock
"You ought'n to a told that!"
T' house, I fear she knows
All those things you write down--
Your hidden book of woes
"You ought'n to a told that!"
T' grave, he calls you home
He knows just where you've come from
And that you're all alone
"You ought'n to a told that!"
T' stranger knows your name
So many things he found out--easy--
Who now will take the blame?
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Shoestrings...
They're the trickiest things
When you're only four
My mother shows me how
To tie them
Before going out the door
"One bunny ear,
Two bunny ears,
bunny goes under a bush..."
I wish I were a rabbit
With no shoes to tie
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Pick from the top of the deck
Don't let me see the card.
Is it the queen of spades?
NO?!!
Blast! This is too hard!
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but now we are hunched over,
bones feeling as if they might
shatter at the smallest applied
FORCE.
We once had names, good names
that commanded respect from
young and old, but now we are
known only as worn out
VISIONS.
There was once a world that we
belonged to, that we fought and
sacrificed dearly to keep so that
an age after us might grow
APART.
Oh, how I miss those grand days
in uniform - gun in hand - I stood
for freedom. We were the liberators
now we are the ones who seek
LIBERATION.
I lived through wars and saw Hell
in all the parts of this world.
It was with the child, the parent,
poor, rich, empty, full - now I ask,
come at last, for me -
DEATH.
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I dialed the wrong number
A man picked up the phone
He said "hello" in such a way
I forgot I was not alone
We spoke for hours
Neither knowing names
My boyfriend got so upset
He says he's sick of dames
Every one of us--unfaithful is
He's had too much of my kind
I don't care that he's left
Men aren't too hard to find
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Love like you are the only one
Who ever loved as much
Love as if no one would love again
Love like the rose was fading
The sea was all dried-up
And there would never be another rain
Love like the world is dying
Put everything good into that love
And wait for all else to wane
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The plainest flower
can don the dew
to add a touch of glamour
But, the flower -
if all the dew, it drew -
would still clamor
to be compared to you
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The ocean whispers secrets
we can't comprehend.
Waves come in
and then go out.
Their messages, to send.
To hear their clandestine
relays, is to be party
to Nature's plot -
and neither know
nor care that any
answer might be sought.
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An evening in Paris,
where the stars are shining bright
and the violins and harmonicas
sing on into the night.
An evening in Paris,
where romance fills the streets.
People pair off - right and left -
and walk home with their "sweet"s.
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