The Art of Not Caring

 

Started out only

nodding

and sticking out my tongue.

Then I began

waving

both hands

now

like I just don’t care.

 

That must have been the reason

she began

yelling the same

thing over

and over

at me,

 “What the heck are you doing over there?”

she said.

 

I said,

“And I don’t care.”

 

Jimmy crack corn

and I don’t care.”"that’s in a song.”

I contended.

 

At times, I think

I make her go mad

just so we will

have something

to talk about.

“Every little one in a while”

"Oh no, that’s in a song, too,” I told her.

 

“Bring me little water, Silvie

 Bring me little water now

 Bring me little water, Silvie

 Every little once in a while.

"I think Leadbelly sang that”

I said.

 

 “Just once,” I told her,
I would like to go through a day

without having everything I do

come out in some old song somewhere;

like Motown, for example..

If you want to know anything

about me just pull out some of those

old recordings and right there I will be.

Yap, those rascals, they got me.”

 

 “Many of those songs,” she informed me,
”were written long before you were even born.

I have no idea what you are talking about.

Leadbelly and that ‘Jimmy Crack Corn’ song

have never appeared on a Motown

recording anyway, that I’m aware of, EVER.”

 

Still, I did not care.

 

I had that Jimmy Crack Corn

song stuck in my head.

and that’s all there was to that.

It’s a catchy tune.

And Leadbelly was one of the greatest
12-string guitar pickers that ever lived.

What’s more, I still groove to some of those old
Motown hits.

But what is there for one to do when
perhaps nowhere in the world
do the subtle enjoyments anywhere truly mater

except for in my head?  And in there; what I say goes,
perhaps nowhere else.

Sometimes things do break out from inside there

disguised in the form of a song.

What the hell is a song anyway?

And can I help it if I can’t remember

where it comes from or where it’s been?

Who invented cheese?  Do I care?

 

Obviously not.

“Jimmy crack corn and I don’t care”

by the way, that’s in a Motown song,

Yes Sir-ee, bob, and Leadbelly did it,

as far as I’m concerned.

So there.

Reviews

[Emily B]

so good to find you here . . .