TEARS
NINETY FOUR TEARS
1st month of Spring Peregrine in cobalt sky
Transports you to a time when hawks fly high
above suburban yard Dive-bombed small
brother too Father never believed it Grew up
on a farm +inner-city where hawks chased Jew
boys down back alleys
Driving along green Impala menthol hanging
from Paul Newman lips in seconds fists flying
toward mouthy-man in muscle shirt rat-bastard
nearly killed us Mother shrieking LEE! While
Henry who later took an Anglo name sat cowardly
swatting flies +pretending to tickle brother’s thighs
It was 1965 grown man could play such pranks back
then Today carted away by Children’s Aid Maybe he
should have been Colourful family horse traders book
makers football players uncle drove the get-a-way car at
17 pardoned in 43 Dream a little dream
Backsplit house on Toronto ravine A wild & peculiar scene
Daddy tapping foot to Bobbie Gentry cowboy hat askew
Say sister: What were you +Billie Joe Macallister doing up
on Choctaw Ridge? Daddy gone for 26 +now Mama doesn’t
seem to wanna do much of anything
__
A year has come and gone since we heard the news ’bout Billy Joe
And brother married Becky Thompson; they bought a store in Tupelo
There was a virus going ’round; papa caught it, and he died last spring
(Ode To Billie Joe Bobbie Gentry 1967)
Bobbie Gentry Nice Jewish girl from the Delta
Spring 2015 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bn6L9gd8ch8)
songanddancegirl 