Wednesday, October 01, 2008

Sara Dreams About Paul Newman

He's wearing a pink shirt and dark tie
and he's supposed to take her to dinner.
Sara's heart raced when she saw his old movies,
knew he wanted her, not Maggie the Cat,
wanted her on the bicycle bars, played
pool with fat Jackie Gleason just to impress.
She hopes they will kiss, puts on pink lipstick
in case, but Paul Newman is crying, head
in his hands. The floor is black from his tears.
Sara knows he's crying because someone has died.
Just now, he remembers it was him.
Sara wants to hold him, tell him it's ok,
but Joanne leads them down a long crowded path.
Frail kids from the Hole in the Wall Gang
bear Paul on their shoulders.
People in rags, rich people,
old people, young people surround them.
At the end of the path,
Sara's dead parents stand waiting.
Sara tries to push the sun back to start
the day over, but the sun keeps on going.
Pink fades to gray, the path disappears
and now Joanne is the one weeping.

6 comments:

Jim K. said...

"The floor is black with his tears."
somehow collects the theme together
suddenly. There is something
besides the obvious I can't quite
figure out. I didn't understand
too well when the college girls
mourned Elvis. I can understand
mourning Newman a lot more.

Pris said...

Hi Jim
Yes, Paul Newman never became a travesty of himself the way Elvis did. Paul Newman was something special, both in his acting and in his personal life, from all I've read.

I was crazy about the Elvis before his capes and drugs, but then it was as if he'd been replaced by a clone. I could never undersand the huge mourning at that point, either, or why the Elvis impersonators choose to do him in those capes and not in the way when he was really good.

Scot said...

Pris
this tells the story just right

Middle Ditch said...

Beautiful Pris

I know that in the US it is the hole in the wall, here it is the over the wall gang, an offspring from that.

hug and lol

Pris said...

Thanks, Scott. M, I didn't know there were branches in the UK, too. He did a tremendous thing starting this rolling.

Anonymous said...

it's hard not to admire Paul Newman for putting his money to work in such productive ways, such as his Newman's Own line--high quality stuff and the proceeds go to good causes... very smart.