Janis And Grace

After a little too much wine,

I wandered into my back acre

where I discovered a rabbit hole.

I peeked in and saw it was dark,

but no way would I try to enter,

though I might have if I had been 

much smaller or the hole much larger.

I recalled the lusty, beautiful mayhem 

of the 1960s and remembered my crush 

of the era, Grace Slick, singing “White Rabbit.”

What a spine-tingling, powerhouse voice.

At the time, the song was mysterious to me— 

a white knight talking backwards?

a hookah-smoking caterpillar?

the pills that mother gives you?

That last one I think a push-back 

against the elder hypocrisies.

It wasn’t until 1968, after “White Rabbit,” 

that I finally read Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

What a curious, amazing place,

and what a trip Alice had. 

I wished I could have done that.

“White Rabbit” still gives me the chills.

And Janis Joplin, having nothing to do 

with rabbit holes in this sense, God bless her,

I don’t think she ever got her 

Mercedes-Benz or a color TV,

but that was the last song she recorded 

for her album, Pearl, before she died 

three days later in October, 1970.

Another tragic loss for the era.

Caught up in the mystery of nostalgia,

I poured more wine and looked

across the grasslands of my home.

Grace wasn’t here yet, but I could hear Janis, 

her passionate, raspy voice singing 

like her insides were shattering, letting loose 

into the wind pieces of her broken heart.

I raised my glass of wine.

Here’s to you both

and to what a time that was.

From: Memories Of Things Left Behind

Unpub. MS p. 37

Retrospective Of A Boomer (part 3 of 4)

What a time that was when Elvis Presley and The Beatles

upset the powers that were and sent the rest of us into a frenzy.

The Beach Boys got us all worked up

about cars, surfing, and California girls.

Rock bands with horns— Chicago, The Ides of March, 

and Blood, Sweat, and Tears. They were fresh and exciting;

so was Cream, Grateful Dead, Led Zeppelin, 

Pink Floyd, The Doors, and The Who.

(Nothing like “White Rabbit,” “A Woman Left Lonely,”

“Bridge Over Troubled Water,” and “Good Vibrations.”)

Leonard Cohen’s voice became better with age.

Sadly, we didn’t get enough of it before he died in 2016.

Jimi Hendrix’s “The Star Spangled Banner” still reverberates

the pain of where we have been and where we are today.

We saw the Berlin Wall built in 1961 that failed 

in 1989. Seems that freedom had the final word.

And in the midst of everything, two men landed on the moon,

July 20, 1969. I remember our stunning, speechless awe,

right there with Walter Cronkite.

From: A Rambly Search for

Innocence, Time, and Love

Unpub. MS p. 33