I knew you before you blossomed,
When each of us was still a child.
Before you wore the face of a beauty queen;
Before your curves started driving me wild.
I knew you before we could tie our shoes,
You were the girl who lived next door.
I knew back then I would never choose
Another girl I could ever love more.
I sat beside you on our first school bus ride,
For the next thirteen years we sat side by side.
My feelings for you I never could hide
Everybody already knew you were going to be my bride.
I danced with you at the school sock-hop,
Wishing the music never would stop.
When I took you to the senior prom
I was awestruck by the beauty holding my arm.
We got married right after high school
Much, of course, to nobody's surprise.
Then enjoyed fifty years worth of mornings,
Together watching the new sunrise.
I can't remember a day without you;
Not that that is something I would ever try.
If ever I said I wanted to be alone,
You would know that I had told a lie.
I was five years old the first day that I swore,
I was going to marry the girl who lives next door.
Bobby sox and penny loafers,
donned the feet of the 1950 teens
as they danced away at the sock hop,
slipping and sliding doing the bop.
Pony tails swayed with the beat,
as poodle skirts twirled with the flow
brightly colored neck scarfs caught the sweat,
crewcut fellas led their dates without fret.
Lights flashed on and off near closing time,
couples slowed down with a waltz,
hugging close and being much in love,
cooing sweet nothings like a loving dove.
February 29, 2020 "Kim Rodriguez DWM Contest"
Close on the leatherneck well booted, high healed stormy, clip clop,
sans well fashioned faux shod Harvey didst stomp with heavy drop
ping like a furious ogre, and before classes even started
this early September 2017 nature maid maelstrom bid adieu
akin to movements indicative of fiendish flip flop
“he” (as if one could identify gender of said huffing puffing Hurricane,
gave the coast an unforgettable pan hand dilly sock hop
wrought desolation visa vis master card –
carrying uprooted trees like footballs, where whoosh of fury didst lop
many complex edifices plus stately trunked vaunted trees
felled like overworked mop
add where tongue shaped swath comprising Texas got cow licked –
or rather a major pop as if punched from boxing competitor
(already down for the doll finned count)
Hurricane Harvey continued to pounce without letup, and refused to stop
spilling profuse water until the steep pulled tippy top
of many tall buildings barely visible accompanying soundtrack mix
included the Furies of Agamemnon concomitant with ruthless
banshees, daemons, fable come to life monsters
performing corrupt version of do wop.
There once was a town called Ballbarrybaroo
The people who lived there had only one shoe
This made it quite hard to go dancing you see
Their poor aching toes were as blue as could be
Each time that their partner would shuffle or slide
The shoe on their foot wasn’t on the right side
And their poor little toes that were open and bare
Got stepped on each time that the music would blare
Then into the town came a stranger one day
And he helped the Ballbarrybaroosers this way
The next time they gathered inside for a dance
He saw what the problem was there at a glance
The stranger then had them remove their one shoe
And dance in their socks for a number or two
The Ballbarrybaroosers thought this was quite neat
To dance all about without hurting their feet
And that dearest friend’s how the sock hop was born
In Ballbarrybaroo on a Saturday morn
Now surely you would not doubt all that I say
For it truly did happen exactly that way
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