The hush of a summer morning
Bathed in the light of sunrise
Drew me to the open window
And the astounding beauty
Of every flower and tree in my yard,
Never did I suspect fraud,
Till I happen to see a black cat
Crossing the lawn in a hurry
And stopping to glance back
With mounting suspicion
Before fleeing my bit of paradise
That had given it the creeps.
What if I were to ditch my car
And walk away without a glance back?
While drivers honk their horns
As I march toward the woods,
Determined, once and for all,
To swap this breed of lunatics
For a more benign kind who dwell
In trees long-haired and naked.
I’ll let the sun be my guide
As I roam the countryside, stopping to chat
With a flower or a butterfly,
Subsisting on edible plants I find,
Glad to share my meal with deer,
Or find a bear licking my face
As I wake up asking where am I?
Stuck in the traffic, Mister!
The sky is a lit juke box
In a roadside dive
Venus in a blonde wig
Snapping her fingers
And calling out requests
To a DJ on high
While stars stand spellbound
Watching the wax spin.
Do you remember Minnie the Moocher
And Cab Calloway who sang of her troubles
Fronting a big band in a white tuxedo?
And Dinah with her Dixie-eyes blazing
Bing Crosby told us how much we love
To sit and gaze at? Do you remember
Chloe whose lover looked for her in a swamp
Through the black of night? And Laura,
Whose face Sinatra glimpsed in misty light
On a train that was passing through,
And Irene everyone was saying goodnight to?
Of course you don’t, folks, but I do.
Fats Waller, at a piano, tipping us off
Lulu’s back in town and right behind her,
Sweet Sue, that every star above knows we love,
And the moon on high the reason why.
1 – Sheila Sund from Salem, United States [CC BY 2.0]
2 – Mc Tobi [CC BY-SA 4.0 ]
3 – Paul van de Velde from Netherlands [CC BY 2.0]
4 – Maxim Beniashvili [CC BY-SA 4.0 ]
Bio – “Charles Simic.” www.poets.org/