Grape Soda

Walking down Court Street to the west
toward some strange place called Downtown.
In tee shirts and small shoes we arrived
at Seatons. We bought meat, grape soda and
cigarettes with Dad's money.
The walk took so long on short legs fueled by
grape soda, pockets stuffed with smokes, mouths
filled with purple teeth.

All the houses looked larger than mine
from the outside. I had not been in them yet
being too young for a paper route. I knew the
inside of one, the house of a blonde girl
with tanned skin and funny looking teeth.
She was from New Mexico and on my soccer team
in second grade. She teased me.
My brother asked me a question about
liking I did not understand. She kissed
me once on the cheek and I picked her up
and dropped her in a garbage can.
That was as close to love as a second grader could get.

Ballsy Cello

Much better the man says
Get off that the violin says
as the violas laugh
                              skipped a beat, sorry
Playing together for the first time
in several years sounding
like it was an everyday occurance.

That's the wrong note
         can we stop I'm missing beats in my bar
1/4 vs. 1/8
in those days it was different
five parts of a whole sound
225 years in the making

twitching feet is this correct
I love the dark stuff it makes me happy inside


Serious faces betray serious frivolity
Smiles betray small mistakes
Faster with flourishes
        STOP
A little too fast
blame it on the photocopy

We're on the beginning again with
serious playing
Violas getting some action
leaning into the stand with eyes
focused across on the violin
The minuet begins a garden of sound
bounded by the ballsy cello