Daye 44 / Shoes

summer this year is so hot
C.o.M. is melting
and i'm lying on the lawn
of my parents garden
and this song about somebody's shoes
is coming at me from out of the radio
the deejay talks over the intro
i can't tell whether it's a man
or a woman who's singing
because the pitching is 'funny'
and the music is so
dreamy heavenly churchly
that i have to stop what i’m doing
and just listen
i put down the comic
i had been reading a moment before
i close my eyes
and oh, here comes another of those
little daydreams
then i notice that the song
isn't about shoes
it's about a wedding
and something isn't quite right with the celebrations...
the lyrics take a weird turn
the singer is singing about how the bride’s mother
'..didn't give her abuse...'
because
'...she didn't forget her shoes'

now my stomach is churning and
my little back-garden daydream
is beginning to turn bad
the beat grows a little more frantic
the song turns all hurdy gurdy
a bouzouki and a harspsichord appear out of thin air
the music is becoming wilder
and i am as intoxicated
as the guests at the wedding must be
i want to join them
to join in the frolicking
the groom is getting
'..a glance from the other girls'
and i can feel that something
sexual is about to happen
but i haven't discovered
exactly what sexual is yet
so i can only guess
why those other girls are smiling
as johnny picks up his bride
off they go together
to make love
while music fills the air...

the throbbing hurdy gurdy
cuts to a piano
and an angelic choir
i wonder whether
my own wedding day will be as strange
as the one in this song
it will be but i don't know that yet
the angelic choirs have disappeared
i’m not sure that i haven’t
just dreamed the whole song
am i awake?
a fuzzy guitar is buzzing in my ear
like an irritated bee
the beat returns
the wedding guests are still dancing madly
everything is out of control
i open my eyes and i look down
the lawn looks funny
somebody is playing a harpsichord again
but it sounds far too close-up
to be coming from the radio
i look up
the blue sky looks too blue
too far away
and here comes the choir
the children at the wedding
are lalalalalala-ing
into the songs conclusion
and the stupid deejay is talking
over the fade
but i can't hear what he's saying anyway
because the radio is crackling
i just manage to catch the singers name
as a rumble of thunder
sounds in the distance
i repeat it like a mantra
over and over under my breath
syllable by syllable
rep-ah-rah-ta
rep-ah-rah-ta
rep-ah-rah-ta
even the singer's name sounds like a hallucination