Joan Jobe Smith - Dancing in a River of Stars

They sang in those days, no
stereo CDs MTV everywhere
boom box ear-plugged joggers
fast fingered bloggers blast-zinging
twitter all over the place
they’d sing
my mother sang while cooking
supper, doing dishes Amapola
my pretty little poppy moonlight
becomes you it goes with your
stardust hair
my father driving his car
over the Golden Gate Bridge sang
San Francisco open your golden gate
that old black magic that you weave so
well under my skin California here
we come and sometimes they’d sing
duet cheek to cheek deep in the
heart of me as they waltzed across
the living room, danced the fox trot
barefoot, the rug rolled back, lights
down low, Artie Shaw shadow clarinet
crooning behind their backs dancing

dancing in the dark
near an endless river of stars.

This poem is published as part of National Poetry Day 2012, theme: stars.

Joan Jobe Smith, founding editor of Pearl magazine and Bukowski Review, has had her work published in more than 500 publications, notably Ambit, Beat Scene, The North, and Bete Noire. Her poetry collection from The Poetry Business, The Pow Wow Cafe, was a 1999 Forward Prize finalist. She lives in Long Beach, California with her husband Fred Voss with whom she was featured in July 2012 at the Humber Mouth Literature Festival.

Well Versed is edited by Jody Porter

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