♦ Poetic Sketches M to R ♦

Putting the cigarette on pause

[ASR] This is the original version. I need to find the revision.

♦♦♦♦♦

Putting the cigarette on pause

♦♦♦♦♦

He puts the cigarette on pause.
Picks up mandolin. Makes it trill.
His voice a descant ascending,
harmonizing over guitars.

As we sit on Iguana's porch,
his cap, red beard and beaded choker
remind me that before his birth
joy was life sung slow with rhythm.

Melodies that I remember.
Nostalgia for my youth resung
in voice, guitar and mandolin
that stroke and strum my worn heartstrings.

Rex stops. Picks up cold cigarette.
My life no longer paused. Relit.




Kåre Enga

catalogue number: [160.552]
2 september 2003.

Note: This is for Rex Langley. His mandolin playing was wonderful. His voice a soft descant. Eddie and Kelly sang and played the guitar and Debbie played a Mexican drum (the drum didn't figure into
the poem poetically; Debbie will get her own poem someday.) And this all at midnight at the Iguana Café,
in Tahlequah, OK!


Working revision:

He puts the cigarette on pause.
Picks up the mandolin to make it trill.
His voice ascends, a descant,
harmonizing over guitars.

As we sit on Iguana's porch,
his cap, red beard and beaded choker
remind me that before his birth
joy was life sung slow with rhythm.

Melodies that I remember.
Nostalgia for my youth resung
in voice, guitar and mandolin
that stroke and strum my worn heartstrings.

Rex stops. Picks up the cigarette.
My life's no longer paused, relit.