May 20

From the Deeper Keep

Winging westward, pilot’s shades dimming sun
lecture’s over, mind’s a blank, day is done
laying back, drink in hand, but not Macallan’s
You never know what triggers the deep
to offer up treasures from a deeper keep
You may not know what makes you weep
The film begins. Willie Nelson’s singing
“On the Road Again.” It’s Honeysuckle Rose.
I start to doze, but hear voices from long-ago
You never know what triggers the deep
to offer up treasures from the deeper keep
you may not know what makes you weep
It’s Tex Ritter, and Roy Acuff, and Bob Wills
I hear Gene Autry and the Bluegrass Boys
tears begin to stream and fall. I start to cry
You never know what triggers the deep
to offer up treasures from the deeper keep
you may not know what makes you weep
The stewardess comes and she’s concerned
no one knows why I’m crying so. Even I.
It’s not the movie, but the singing in my head
You never know what triggers the deep
To offer up treasures from the deeper keep
you may not know what makes you weep
Days later I tell my parents of my crazy crying
tell them what I heard. Dad says he knows why:
seems he danced with me when I was a babe
You never know what triggers the deep
to offer up treasures from the deeper keep
you may not know what makes you weep
He danced with me to country music on the radio
and he sang along as best he could again and again
until his stuttering disappeared. I had not known.
You never know what triggers the deep
To offer up treasures from the deeper keep
You never know what what you will reap.