.
in town a café’s coffee buzz seeps
through door to street—
a greenhorn singer moans her song,
not as in the old days, as in
rockabilly and rhythm & blues before,
but with power chords and a fresh monotony
my dad liked country tunes
and hearing James Brown first time
stopped where my big-holed 45 spun
and, in blue-collar patois, said,
You call this shit music? —and I said, “I
I do.”, as we spun off each other then
and went our separate ways awhile
until a fresh dew on pumpkins froze
in a new late game and the harvesters
off across the field sang James
Brown and Hank Williams
as they came
Jim Culleny
November 2007
………………………..
Blink 