Your Song
To choose one song and the memory
it evokes, pull into the snowy parking lot
at the bottom of Toggenburg with the opening
piano notes of Elton John on the A.M. station,
watching your older sister with her long
blond hair put the car in park, and you
both buckle your ski boots from the front
seat, each door open wide while Elton sings
“It’s a little bit funny, this feeling inside…”
And you think your four-years-older sister
with an endless string of boy-
friends must have someone who croons
this song about her, but how
can anyone mistake sky
blues for green? And anyway,
what I mean to say is,
it was more a hill than a mountain
when I sang along.
**Thanks, E. Elizabeth Beck, for the prompt at Samantha Ratcliffe’s series!
15 thoughts on "Your Song"
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I love the compressed details here that sing, and how it speaks to music and memory
Thanks, Shaun!
Love this, Ellen! The Elton John reference is icing on the cake.
Thanks for reading, Kevin! I’ve always loved this song…
The memory details are amazing, Ellen!
Thanks for reading, Nancy!
Love the ending of this memory, putting a today perspective. It was a hill more than a mountain.
Thanks, A!
Oh, Ellen. Beautiful images called up from “Your Song.” Ski boots, boyfriends, hill or mountain…I love how you incorporate the lyrics into your poem as thought.
Thanks, Roberta! I loved going back to that moment. Songs have a way of doing that, for sure!
pulls me right in:
To choose one song and the memory
it evokes, pull into the snowy parking lot
this line from the song gives wonderful emotional tone:
“It’s a little bit funny, this feeling inside…”
Thanks for reading and commenting, Pam.
Oh, I loved this, Ellen. That Elton John song really took me back. One of my faves back in the day. Lovely, the way you wove memory and music.
Thanks, Karen. Funny, I always think about this moment when I hear “Your Song.”
This is gorgeous and so evocative. Really love the deftness–so much in a short poem…. I feel the warm car, hear the tinny speakers as you
“pull into the snowy parking lot
at the bottom of Toggenburg with the opening
piano notes of Elton John on the A.M. station,”