VERSE / Alyce Guynn : Pale Mornings
Pale Mornings
Brass buttons, green silks and silver shoes
warm evenings, pale mornings, bottle of blues
"Brass Buttons," Gram Parsons
She removes her precious memories
from the store room of her heart
unwraps the protective tissue paper
shielding them from today’s
enlightened air, amorphous moisture
and lays them out, not only for reminiscing
but also, examination
Like the yellowed silk of yesterday’s finery
the treasured recollections reveal
the wear and tear of time
It was a dream much too real
to be leaned against too long
She has curated these memories
catalogued them, carefully preserved
in papyrus of the everlasting now
protected from the inherent vandalism
of close scrutiny
Gram Parsons wrote
“Brass Buttons” when he was 18
The eternal second guessing:
too much purple? Did they drink
too deeply from the bottle of blues?
Gram Parsons died way too young
he never knew how famous
he would become
Pretty pictures of the past
too precious to be pixilated
too fragile to be framed
Like yesterday’s satin doll
edged in tatting and lace
ivory slowly shading to yellow
unable to retain its glow
The bearded man from five blocks down
suggesting Billy Gibbons
always waves when I drive by
the one-finger, Texas two-lane wave
Here in the eternal now
witness to her agony
rumpled and tousled
she leans over her shadow
observing self
It always slew her
each time she let herself
revisit his eyes
the look landing on her
an echoing thud of knowing
seeing behind her lids
where all her yearning hid out
like the Younger brothers
in the Missouri hills
With doleful acceptance
but no regrets
she steps inside her past
profound and magical in its excess
shimmering, incandescent
memories not to be squandered
brought out on rare occasions
carefully shared with trusted few
not to be profaned by parading
sheltered from indiscriminate scorn
And all the while
I think she knew
© Alyce Guynn
The Rag Blog
December 2012
Austin, Texas
[Alyce Guynn’s poetry appears in Feeding the Crow and Deal Me In, a book of her love poems illustrated by Jesse "Guitar" Taylor. A former reporter for the Austin American-Statesman in the ‘60s, Alyce never wrote for The Rag, but read it regularly. Alyce also works as an antitrust investigator.]
The Rag Blog