Neil Young is crying out of him
He’s 16 and I say to his mother
— That son of yours. He makes me wish I was 15 again.
She doesn’t understand.
But there’s a smart and sexy girl who does.
She lives with his guitar playing until she’s
no longer a girl. Then she just leaves.
She goes off with a real estate agent.
Then it’s Lou Reed crying out of him
with snatches of BB King and a heartbeat
big enough, risky enough, mixed enough to rap to
After five years he finds a woman who wants to dance to it
My son’s face is smooth.
I’m biased, but he’s gonna be
one heaven of a man
for a woman who likes it loud.
(Displayed in WA Spring Poetry Festival PoetTrees 2007)