John Lennon, Gone 40 Years

c.2020 Rod Ice

All rights reserved

John Lennon gone 40 years

I sit here, middle-aged

Angel with a dirty face

Deep-sixed and backpaged

Like my hero, gone away

When he fell through that door to eternity

I was merely a child of 19

Brash with no cash

Moved like Jumpin’ Jack Flash

Under a bridge

Dropout college trash

White Album under my arm

Doing it in the road

Who knew I would be getting old

Could not see through my tears

That I’d still be alive

In so many years

Double Fantasy

Still sounds like an obituary

A tribute tome

Vinyl grooves, the spirit moves

Grit in my eyes, mud on my shoes

I’ve waited here for something to do

For the train to come through

The Midnight Special

With its boxcars full

But all I see

Four decades into eternity

Is the empty husk

Of what he meant to us

Cap tipped nobly

Hands cradle the ukulele

Whisper to me

Speak softly of your dreams

I’m cold and alone 

Without you on the other end of the telephone

To Ohio came the Liverpool sound

His music tore the temple down

I knew Elvis, Fats, and Jerry Lee

But those British boys

Emboldened me

A kid planted deep in the corn

Buckeye lad

A Christian trad

My Silvertone vacuum tubes

Glowed hot with that English groove

I stayed up all night

Listening by candlelight

Memorizing riffs

Dreaming of a kiss

From Dusty Springfield 

Spinning my Mustang’s wheels

Up the road to Zanesville

Those radio reverberations

Were still hot like the sun

When I heard as a teenager

“John the Beatle is done.”

I cried in front of our 50’s RCA

Black and white receiver

Rabbit ears

And my heart full of fear

Ronald Reagan had just won his race

Now my beloved Brit

Had been erased

More popular than Jesus

But mortal in makeup

He left us

To weep in the dust

I sat in the back room

With a bowl of mac & cheese

Fretting over pleasantries

I should have pronounced

While downtown, stepping out

Across the Ithaca Commons

A Finger Lakes fool

Too young to obey the rules

Why couldn’t I see

The march of time

Was at work inside of me

This fateful destiny

Would decree

That I live and love and laugh

Too clever by half

Until, far from the past

I arrive at this future date

Too long gone away

Silent, I kneel to pray

Over memories

Of this beloved ‘he’

Who meant so very much to me

Joking John with his Rickenbacker

A mocking rocker

I miss you, sir

We never met, it’s true

But the life I’ve lived

Was born in you

The boom of bass, the twang, the beat

From the Cavern Club to Bleecker Street

Your vibe was my jive

It made me come alive

A kid with guitar

Lost in the Midwest

Too easily impressed

Yet sure of the score

When I heard the Fab Four

My heart took that strike

When you knelt in the night

I prayed “Make it right!”

And even though God could not take that cup

I sucked it up

Bit my lip

Gave my gig bag a zip

Turned toward tomorrow

Bowed low with sorrow

Determined to carry in me

The melody

From the River Mersey

Written on my iPhone SE