it's easy to lose one's bearings.
Old Bushka enchanted the traffic signals,
and Copper Pipe Charlie ended up way the hell out to mile marker 47
going on about Jesus
while Fire Company 3 cut him out of the cab.
Sometimes people just won't shut their pie holes,
and a person can get thirsty for some solitude.
Old Bushka says
the old ways were the best ways,
but she never liked cabbage,
which marked her out among her own as something of an odd duck.
Copper Pipe Charlie never could explain
how he came to be axle-deep in mud out by Caroline Bird's mailbox,
but she came out and kindly held his hand in hers
as if she were Jesus' own receptionist,
while the clouds parted overhead and a silver jetliner circled above them.
CNN can chase their tails all they like--
Old Bushka is the only one who knows where everybody went,
and she's not talking
except to her big split-eared tom.
High on the roof of a Gypsy wagon, he once saw the moon
from closer up than you.
He saw what he saw.
Why do you think you have to ask so many questions,
when the night is warm
and there are more like Caroline Bird
just waiting to be found if you let go and wash up on her shore?
______
A cast of interesting characters if I ever saw one! I'd listen to old Bushka. I hear her at night and in my dreams. I separate myself from the news. I like foggy mornings.
ReplyDeleteI don't know which does more for this poem, the little layered details, or the sharp-cornered characters--maybe it needs both to be this good.Tthe news they tell us is so rarely the news that matters. Perfect execution in this, Shay, and I'd always rather listen to your gypsies and cats than Wolf Blitzer.
ReplyDeletePlane crashes are very topical at present, and you have used this trope quite fearlessly to conjure up a gypsy tale. We have a million questions but the answers remain out of reach for the most part.
ReplyDeletei like all the layers of life going on - even as some don't.
ReplyDeleteI love the cat that got close to the moon!! Another great gypsy story.
ReplyDelete"as if she were Jesus' own receptionist"
ReplyDeleteIt just doesn't get any better than that.
We never know what we connect us to someone else. I love the details and characters in this.."Jesus own receptionist" perhaps at that moment she was. :)
ReplyDeleteI would love to have a chat with the split eared tom and wash up on her shore. And I just love your characters in this.
ReplyDeleteI too love your gypsy tails/tales!
ReplyDeleteYes, I want more-you should do a book of short stories~
That was a very cool video.
ReplyDeletelovely characters...and the details..wonderful
ReplyDeleteYou have a wonderfully lively voice here that dances, pokes, sashays, and incites us in. K.
ReplyDeleteSo many overlapping layers in this, had to giggle at the piehole reference.
ReplyDelete"Old Bushka says
ReplyDeletethe old ways were the best ways,
but she never liked cabbage,"
Just love that! and the "she's not talking" is priceless. And she even knows about Charlie, as she "rerouted" him. Another fun, quirky cast of characters.