Narrative Nothings with apologies to anyone who decides to read them. The first two verses are mostly autobiographical; “mansion so fine” in “The Neighbor” is stolen from a song that keeps playing in my head: “The Whistling Gypsy Rover,” especially as sung by the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem. I would provide a link if I knew how to do that.
Mary: the Begining
She walked into my working place*;
I was stocking new shirts on the shelves.
She strolled down my aisle with a heart-warming smile
and an innocence born free of guile, I thought;
An innocence born free of guile.
“Hello,” I said, looking up at her
As she started to pass me by;
“You’re lovely as springtime, summer
And fall, whose beauty is like
Bright snow on a wall.”
That’s when I ran into the snow-covered wall and finally gave up writing here. The poverty-stricken sort of ballad-like verses that show up next are a kind of a fanciful continuation. Oh yes: the place* was the J. C. Penny store in Tiffin, Ohio. I worked there for three or four years; it paid for my college fees as well as a summer trip to Mexico in 1961. Those were the days. In Mexico City I almost got arrested twice—faulty car muffler first time. The enormous trooper let me go for an 800 peso bribe; the second time was for a traffic violation; I thought I was just driving the way everyone did. I almost got engaged too. Another Maria. Her father was a general in the Mexican army. This policeman wanted to take me to jail. I pretended not to speak a word of Spanish this time and drove him to the General who fixed it for me. I was supposed to go back to Mexico City but I got shot down outside of Rosa’s Cantino. Alas.
The Neighbor
She lives next door in a mansion fine
With two dogs, a cat and her mother;
And I would dream of her dark brown eyes,
That someday I might be her lover.
I knocked on the door of the mansion so fine,
‘Twas answered by her old wrinkled mother
With a glass of wine, two barking dogs,
And a cat that was under deep cover.
Her mother looked me straight in the eye,
“What do you want, young man?” said she.
“To steal a kiss from your daughter!” I said.
The old lady laughed and shook her grey head,
Then slammed the door in my face;
She slammed the door in my face!
What did you expect, you silly young man?
I thought to myself as I shuffled away;
Audacity doesn’t play well these days,
No matter what others might say.
I put on my best shirt, jacket and tie;
I bought her twelve red roses.
Then I returned to the mansion so fine,
With my head now full of supposes.
Suppose your lady has a rich fond friend;
Suppose she’s engaged to another.
What shall I do if she doesn’t like me
And threatens to call a mean brother?
I’ll take my chances in true love’s affair,
For she is a lady so lovely
That I will risk my heart’s desire
To win the love of the lady so fair.
I knocked on the door of the mansion so fine
Hoping the lady would answer.
She opened the door and kissed me once
With lips as sweet as fine cherry wine.
She is a lady so fine and so fair,
My wife I’m soon to make her;
The priest will say, “Do you do?” “I do!
“Till it’s time for the old undertaker!
“Till it’s time for the old undertaker.”
[Well, that’s what “till death do you part” means! As for the crow outside my window and below, you might say it was Biblically hatched.]
Providence?
A very big crow, black as sin,
Landed in our front yard maple,
He cocked his head and cleaned his beak.
As if for a dinner table.
And not just for this leafless fable.
Next he preened his dusty black feathers,
One by one, down and up he went.
The idle dust floated to the rich grassy ground,
Through the mild and sun-lit summer air,
While the bird worked totally unconcerned,
Under vast providential care.
The image: That’s Georgina Reilly who played a coroner for several seasons on “Murdoch’s Mysteries.” She has a rather wonderful smile. The picture doesn’t quite capture the smile, but it is close. The Canadian series ran for 17 seasons.
