i watched him place it
with care upon the player
turntable spinning backwards
taking me back in time
raised arms steeped us in music
looking for hidden pictures
on the colorful covers
adding doodles to make it mine
lyrics repeating until
memorized, the song was owned
listening for secret sounds
that made it onto the tracks
switching speeds to change the mood
lip synching to known scratches
all the things he would never know
in quite the same way
i love that he took great care
slipping it back in the paper sleeve
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© 2010
I love your work Jaymie, you take such love & care of the subjects you write about, one travels far distances in your short poems. You are a masterful poet! LK 🙂
Wow, Jaymie! You said so much here. Love it! Very poignant.
Loved it! I am transported back in your time capsule. I have old LPs like in your photo. My brother’s friend had a record store and had to sell everything. I have some really old LPs. I remember playing all of them. Great post!
Talk about bringing up memories! Me & my best friend, Donna Melville, buying a copy of Subterranean Homesick Blues, with the kick-ass photo of Dylan on the cover, hulking down on the floor of my purple bedroom, taking the LP out of the paper sleeve, putting it on the stereo, playing it over and over and over till we were letter perfect…”Johnny’s in the basement, mixin’ up the medicine, I’m on the pavement, thinkin’ ’bout the government…” Thanks for the take-me-back moment!
This is flooded with nostalgia and I’m feeling myself in the moment. A time when we took the time to slow down, get close, speed up, be unconcerned and groove. Lyrics were romantic and music had imperfections that we now wish we still heard. Loved this poem Jaymie!