THE HISTORY OF THIS WORLD

THE HISTORY OF THIS WORLD

Merle makes commentary

when he smiles those lines

into the landscape outside

Sacramento, Kern River

stone-filled suiseki searchers

seeking serpentine ancestors.

I saw Merle three times,

saw Ray Charles more than that.

Ray sang me home from work

when I was 16, he was singing

Hank Williams in Modern Sounds.

Reverend Jesse Jackson, who I voted

for as Washington State delegate

when he ran for President in 1988,

said sadly, Ray, always the entertainer.

Not for me, Jesse. It was midnight,

Mom and Dad were asleep.

I'm so lonesome I could cry.

I listened until it got light.
I listened until it was time for school.

Jim Bodeen

16 September 2019