riffing in ombre
liquor layered drink
drain rainbow cocktails
round the roller rink
long before deejays
played your favorite song
a man on the dais
piped us all along
playing grand march on
Wurlitzer organ
gaily funereal
round we go again
mirror globe twinkles
gypsy crystal ball
many tinsel diamonds
reveals us to us all
did it show me sad?
when my dad said no
only up the block
but I couldn't go
there was a time when
nothing stopped we two
back before they came
and he'd other things to do
(hmm conspiracy theory there. Stepmother needed me there to babysit.)
he'd bought me white skates
with pom-poms of pink
but I wasn't keen to
wear them at the rink
time for pom-poms past
while he bypast me
I had moved on too
I'd other life to see
skating rink changed too
no more organ dances
now the records spun
on to other chances
or to letdowns when
the one I loved so
after saying he'd come
he didn't even show
(hmm sounds like SOMEBODY's DAD! oy vey, men. I ask you...)
so oddly it seems
I see so clearly
me in the mirror
that boy I don't see
don't know who he was
yet I do not blame
this two-faced lothario
whatever was his name
got no time for grudges
on this memory train
does he recall me
my half recalled swain?
what I see are colors
FD&C Red No. 4
kidney killing yellow
candy floss blue floor
Fanta red pop and Hi-C
tried some recently
nearly gagged myself
just for posterity
tawdry and garish
artificially bright
the best place to be
on Saturday night
ubiquitous shag
carpet lines the walls
fluorescent remnant
to buffer the falls
booby-trap bathroom
with sink hole floor drain
mind how you go now
or you'll fall again
skater hangover
not from too much drink
Sunday morning bruises
from punchup with the rink
hadn't thought for decades
of all my rink rash
those damned waxed floors and
falling on my ass--hhh
signature scented
mildew, carpet and sweat
stale popcorn machine
I can call it up yet
garish colored walls
all go rushing past
so merry were we
how quickly they passed
hollows echoing
lilting organ call
we'll never hear again
plays to no one at all
rinks evaporated
no more disco requiem
now bougie sweet shop
still I see and hear 'em
dad and stepmom sleep
many moons in the ground
so quietly gone that
I barely hear their sound
saw by Facebook photo
that boy has just died
like Kinks at the Pally
for youth's death I cried
Let us keen a dirge
calliope symphony
the circus death march
sung in perpetuity
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