April 22nd, 2010
Link • Audio, Poems • 2 Comments
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Jamie Thomas
1973
If spring is the season of beginnings,
then autumn’s the shotgun wedding,
though the shotgun is seldom needed
in these parts anymore. The idea
of the thing is as loaded as the thing
itself. Think powder blue tuxedo,
bride slightly showing, January baby.
It’s not their fault; the whole decade
was a mistake. Not the chalkboard
but the fingernails. The morning
after the night they’ll never remember.
All that polyester, all those sand paper
leisure suits—all the Quaaludes
make sense now. Forget about words
like turmoil that try to be too much
about life; they’re not nearly enough.
The word alone won’t burn you.
First yell Fire, then run out into the snow.
–from Rattle #23, Summer 2005
[...] you Rock . . . for reprinting (can you reprint on a website?) my poem 1973 (originally in Rattle #23) with audio on your web [...]
If I could live two periods in my life over again, one would be the period 1973-1976. Just a neat time.