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We’re Often Told
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I have no idea why
A nice song comes to mind
And then another
It’s not for beatific sleep
Or a sweet disposition
Wakened first thing
By the telephone
It’s not because of bristly
Wind outside,
Blowing what fall colors
We have known
Off slender branches
That could have been clothed
A while longer, should
Nature have consulted me
Tired, cranky
Thinking so-and-so by so-and-so
And I mean me
It should be a gray and spiny
Day by all accounts
Gray and apathy
Yet pleasant lyrics
With their high notes come
My way, though I did not
Ask them to
Serenaded by the mariachis
I have made up in
A mind that will not quit
Drugged by caffeine,
Scarred over
Not so pretty if I ever was
An inside and an outside
Needing shelves
And somehow from the files
Arising from the folders
Made of neurons
There is
Something to listen to
The kind that has no hearing
Seeing a singer
Who’s not there
On stage in costume
For a minimal production
Of a bittersweet play,
Which is what I get
Shortly after waking
On a late-fall day
In Pennsylvania of the USA
Wherever you might be
Might be the same
Company across telepathy
Made by
The chief of surgery
Who’s had the job
Since there were eons
Needing mending
With a song
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C L Couch
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“Somebody to Watch Over Me” by Ira Gershwin, George Gershwin
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Photo by Dmitriy K. on Unsplash
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clcouch123 
October 29, 2021 at 4:06 pm
I love the idea of mending a person with a song. The rhythm of this poem is very nice.
October 29, 2021 at 5:29 pm
Thank you! I try to think of how a poem will sound, particularly to someone else. Your recent work I think of being delivered quickly and pointedly. Dramatic.
I think the Bible describes Jesus speaking creation into existence. Not to mention God in Genesis repeatedly saying that it’s good. In Narnia, I believe Aslan sings creation into being, which I often think about.
October 29, 2021 at 5:38 pm
Thank you.