Sister & Me

Sister & Me

Crimson tressed child
Of the copper lamplight
trades first communion lily gown
For blue nurse evening shawl
With Red Cross and
Toy stethoscope
To hear the Jazz rhythm
Of my heart

But phonograph of Brubeck
Plays our song
For our pretend Union
On altar of girlhood tears
That bears the loneliness
I too feel
While lost in boyhood dreams
Of seagulls chasing the night away
On neighborhood stoops
Where Django strums from guitars

As dawn comes with slow insistence
And we roam the lonely streets
In search of the grail
Far away from Mama’s silent vigil
Into the great ghetto of America