Early Poems Xviii

EARLY POEMS XVIII You didn't have time by Michael R. Burch You didn't have time to love me, always hurrying here and hurrying there; you didn't have time to love me, and you didn't have time to care. You were playing a reel like a fiddle half-strung: too busy for love, "too old" to be young . . . Well, you didn't have time, and now you have none. You didn't have time, and now you have none. You didn't have time to take time and you didn't have time to try. Every time I asked you why, you said, "Because, my love; that's why." And then you didn't have time at all, my love. You didn't have time at all. You were wheeling and diving in search of a sun that had blinded your eyes and left you undone. Well, you didn't have time, and now you have none. You didn't have time, and now you have none. This is a song-poem that I wrote during my early songwriter phase, around age 17. 49th Street Serenade by Michael R. Burch It's four o'clock in the mornin' and we're alone, all alone in the city . . . your sneakers 're torn and your jeans 're so short that your ankles show, but you're pretty. I wish I had five dollars; I'd pay your bus fare home, but how far canya go through the sleet 'n' the snow for a fistful of change? 'Bout the end of Childe’s Lane. Right now my old man is sleepin' and he don't know the hell where I am. Why he still goes to bed when he's already dead, I don't understand, but I don't give a damn. Bein' sixteen sure is borin' though I guess for a girl it's all right . . . if you'd let your hair grow and get some nice clothes, I think you'd look outta sight. And I wish I had ten dollars; I'd ask you if you would . . . but wishin's no good and you'd think I'm a hood, so I guess I'll be sayin' good night. This is one of my earliest poems; I actually started out writing songs when some long-haired friends of mine started a band around 1974. But I was too introverted and shy to show them to anyone. This one was too racy for my high school journal. Keywords/Tags: early, early poems, juvenalia, time, love, youth, young, 10th grade, sun, night, care, song