Twentieth Summer
But I was twenty once, a self deprecating funny girl,
Here’s my girlfriends, Mary, her hair’s way down her back,
Skinny pretty hippie,
there’s Annie, tomboy cute, and earliest girl in flannel
My brother, sister, and the handsome boy from Holland.
so unstudied studied back then, no makeup
don’t brush your hair too much
we’re wearing boy’s corduroys we bought at the Army Navy store.
Drinking Miller High Life while the other girls drank white wine Spritzers
Cars doors slamming, there’s a promise ahead on the road.
You’ll sit in the back seat with my brother, he’ll have you in tears with laughter
hopeful first light of a summer night, all neon, and a hundred voices.
The band’s playing all the “Yes” songs in the background,
we know all the words, reaching hands, arms swaying, glasses up high,
Clinking imprints of our fingers on the frosted glasses of the nighttime.
All of us joined in something so fleeting as a shooting star,
laughing and shouting to be heard
But we like it, the yelling is part of the joy
it’s a time where you’re lit up inside your soul, grabbing the night and
The edge of summer’s gifts
One minute it’s bright, then it’s gone. Did you see it?
We’re toasting and shouting “to the summer of 1977!”
And now the announcer’s, ”last call!”
fluorescent lights invade our weary joy, It’s sudden, and
a hundred voices Groan…”awww nooo…!”,
Closing time, we barrel down Dune Drive in Mary’s 1962 Corvair.
Unsafe at any speed, But my pretty younger sister’s always the designated,
but don’t let her preppy collars, sweaters, and loafers deceive you,
One eye shut she’ll get us home, I know.
Your sides are splitting, see, it’s just like I told you,
that’s the way it is with my brothers, that’s the way it is,
like a great show that you’re part of, and you’re just waiting for the next funniest thing.
The car seems to float on the seashore road, gales of laughter
leaving echoes in the night.
I see your pretty smile, and your doubled over laughing your sweet infectious laugh,
At my brother’s imitation of the guy that asked me to dance.
How we dominated the dance floor with our mocking disco moves
and the people circled around us unison clapping.
“There’s a time and the time is right and it’s right for me
It’s right for me and the word is love”
Let’s switch places time traveler, lucky girl
Where I was a young once with all the gifts ahead of me
Only the gifts, but none of the sadness, and loss, none of the frightening things
Where the ones you loved with all your might, really die,
that day, that turned into decades
Light a match in front of your face and watch it change in the moonlight
You’ll want them to know you’re still that pretty girl, the mocking affectionate friend
And the girl that took over the dance floor
But you can’t fake it, your face is wrinkled and
They’re ignoring you, bumping into you, you’re like a ghost in a theme park, Unable to ride the rides.
I’ll come back with you and I’ll tell you where we’ll go
Hold my hand, hold tight, and we’ll run and stand in line for the
big places shining on a seashore summer night
We’ll dance, look at all the boys, and hope we’re pretty
And stay that way, Then rush back home, drop the needle on the album.
Grace Slicks’ voice will peel out like a saddened cry
And you’llI want to hear her say it over and over
“Have you seen the stars tonight, take a look at, all,all…all the stars”
The chords, they break my heart, and reach into something sadder
but tomorrow I’ll try them out on the piano
Jump out of bed in the morning and let the chords
Fall onto the keys, the simple
Progression calms the clutter in my head
But tonight, I just want to sit on the Widow’s Walk,
It’s like a little boat in the nighttime sky
That little porch up high, way up high, feel the wind
and look out on a miniature world below,
the lighted houses, low and summery cottages,
look like little diamonds in the night
We’ll talk and laugh about all the things we saw today.
And play the “Yes” album all the way through,
Let’s just be a little drunk and never get old,
and let’s have another round.