In summer Jimmy's belly would get tan
from lazy afternoons of drink and dance
without his shirt; you never saw a man
so joyful in his cups, and any chance
to shed his top and gig under the sun,
cap clownishly turned backwards, chest two slabs
of meat atop that gut, Jimmy would run
to meet it, trailing buttons and beer tabs.
No fear of melanoma, nor the frowns
of neighbors, nor cirrhosis could dissuade
Jimmy, beer-belly-full, from getting down
half-naked whenever the music played.
If there's a heaven Jimmy's dancing there,
drunk on glory, his chest and belly bare.
1 comment:
This one is touching. A fond memory of a friend who was nobody famous but whose simple pleasure was as good as the world gives. In the second line, I would say "from afternoons of drink. He would dance" or something like that. The way it reads now, the syntax says his belly is doing the dancing. You can afford to drop "lazy" because it is implied by an afternoon of drinking.
I like it that you are putting the sonnet to this sort of us.
Post a Comment