When Life Wasn't As Blind

"Loves to Be Loved," 1973. Photo: © MASAYOSHI SUKITA, 1973
I will drink
and you will dance
in shoes too big
for your dreams.

We have time to fill
until time drinks our blood,
so let’s laugh while others are crying.

Change my mind.
I will change the clock
back to yesterday when
life wasn’t as blind.

Sing from your glass of wine.
I will read your fortune from scarred palms.

We will never be heroes.
I’m too selfish and you can’t choose.

Sing, drink, dance….
Tomorrow will be broken bones
spilling dust while we laugh.

 ©Susie Clevenger 2015






Real Toads ~ Milk Shakes Cold and Long ~ A Farewell

Comments

brudberg said…
Love how you treated the concept.. Shoes to big for your dream, I think we have all tried on those... but in the end to be a hero probably is more blisters... let's sing and dance instead.
January 22, 2016 at 7:00 AM
hedgewitch said…
I listened to this song for the first time the other day--it's a very good one, but hard to say exactly why--haunting, full of incongruous contrasts and very elusive metaphors. Your poem does an excellent riff on it, on that separation that always exists between any two human beings, no matter how close, and yet how it works to define and sustain us as we bridge it with heart and time and that carefully tended connection called love. A pleasure to read, Susie.
January 22, 2016 at 7:15 AM
Kerry O'Connor said…
Your opening and closing stanzas are outstanding in their role as intro and conclusion to this poem about passion and art.
January 22, 2016 at 9:58 AM
Buddah Moskowitz said…
Absolutely haunting and beautiful. There are so many allusions to death and you laugh at them as though they were Dias de los Muertos figurines... are you sure you're not a Chicana? Love, Mosk the Mexican
January 22, 2016 at 11:53 AM
Gail said…
...shoes too big for your dreams...

Wow, wow and WOW!
January 22, 2016 at 2:53 PM
ayala said…
Love this, Susie.
January 22, 2016 at 4:31 PM
Anonymous said…
dance in shoes too big for your dreams ...oh I like that!!
the whole thing justs sings
January 22, 2016 at 5:03 PM
Brendan said…
Such a heroism in being what we really are, no more. Who needs gods and heroes when it is we who love?
January 23, 2016 at 5:05 AM
Anonymous said…
Ah. How I love this. I can't specify one reason why but the overall effect is so real. Very well penned. :-)
-HA
January 23, 2016 at 9:17 AM
Outlawyer said…
So many great lines here, Susie, and the overall effect is very well-knit--works well with Bowie as subject but also as a poem about living for and in the moment. Thanks. k.
January 23, 2016 at 8:20 PM
Isadora Gruye said…
Wow Suzie, just wow. This is such a strong piece of work. I get the feel of Bowie as an artist in all the imagery you've invoked, changing clocks, vampires drinking blood, dreams too big for shoes. Each feel to invoke an era of Bowie. Though I must say, "so let's laugh while the others are crying," is such a beautiful line. It took my breath away. Thanks for posting to the out of standard!
January 25, 2016 at 9:39 PM
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