Sharon

from Kaleidoscope (poems and fables for our times)

I’ve been blessed in my fifty-plus years in the music business to travel all over the world, as well as this beautiful country of ours, meeting people from all walks of life. This poem was written late in the twentieth century, when I was working for MCA records on an album, entitled Mercyland, for the artist Cowboy Mouth. We were at a little, residential studio called Dockside, situated on the Bayou Rouge, just outside of Lafayette, Louisiana. Though the customs, food, and accents of the people down there were very different than the area where I was raised up in New York, I found their heart and spirit to be a blessing. With Thanksgiving right around the corner, I hope this poem gives you a sense of how much more we share in this country that binds us, rather than divides us, and how grateful we should be to be Americans.

Sharon

There’s something in her laughter that recalls the
     raucous sound
of early-morning geese in flight, high up above the
     ground.
And something in her eyes reveals the secret of her
     smile:
of how she lives and works and loves and still
     remains a child.
She’s married to a man named Jim who’s worked
     around this land
and found in her a place to dwell…a place he
     understands.
It’s just a small cafe beside a lazy, Cajun lane,
yet the traveler who tarries there will never leave
     the same.
For not until a morsel of her homemade étoufée
has passed your lips can one begin to know the
     special way
That Sharon passes through this life, with arms
     spread open wide
to welcome those who’ve come to dine within her
     heart and pride.
And there, in smothered cabbage, beans and rice 
     and pecan pie,
is why I envy Jim each time I hear the geese fly by.