Dan Burleson Poet Free verse

A Song Long Enough

I had just set my headphones

down when the intercom

buzzed and Ruben O’s 

voice asked urgently:

 

“you ready man?”

 

I’m standing before the

multi-slide mixing board

in a studio dreamily

streaked in amber from

the track lights.

 

“Eagles Lyin’ Eyes man,

all six minutes and eleven

seconds.  let’s go!” was

my reply.

 

this is a conversation 

between two radio deejays

at two radio stations

in the same building

in San Antonio in the eighties.

 

it’s nearly three 

in the morning and were

both bored and wanting

a “bump” to make it

through our night owl

radio shifts.

 

I crank up the monitor

in the control room 

and swing the studio door

open and lock it back

so I can hear the song

play from thirty feet away.

 

Ruben O’ does the same 

to his door across the hall. 

 

this is what is happening

on the other side

of the microphone

as the 

listening public 

in four southern states 

tunes in to hear 

the Eagles on KTSA

and “Karma Chameleon”

by Boy George on KTFM.  

 

sister stations in a 

clay colored building

at the end 

of a 200 yard

driveway off 

Eisenhower Road

in San Antonio, Texas.

 

I’m already waiting outside

the back door where the

jocks park.  my foot holding

the door open. 

 

it’s a balmy summer night

and lightning silently shimmers 

in the tall clouds to the north 

of the Alamo City.

 

You can’t hide your lyin’ eyes…

 

You come and go, you come and go…

 

our dueling aired songs play

loudly and the sound

 crashes through the

still air and echoes 

boomingly off the 

residential neighborhood

two blocks away.

 

we each take hurried hits 

off the moistened roach.

holding the smoke in the

lungs for a few seconds.

 

two hits is all I need.

I’m already feeling a little

fuzzy.  Ruben O’s ready

to go too.

 

“screw it man, that’s good

enough”

 

we both sprint back

down the hallway 

to our respective

 broadcast studios.  

 

such is another night

as an all-night radio

deejay at twin stations

in south Texas 

on a summer night

in the eighties.

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