Song Of The English Waitress

excerpts in italics from 'Together We Are Beautiful' by Fern Kinney (1980)

Music drifts up from the restaurant

borne thick and dreamy

on Mediterranean air

al fresco under moonlight

and common raffia roof

romantic meals clink crockery

and friendly couples share

as the English waitress

moves passive, to-and-fro

between blue-chequered tablecloths

of times gone before

  "I don't need love affairs anymore"

The hotel tape is hers to conduct

  "He walked into my life

  and now he's taking over"

and it plays those home-spun verses

that transplant with the foreigners

like a 'welcome' mat

removed from their colder addresses

and stepped off the jet

with their songs in their ears

as once had the English waitress

  "And it's beautiful" say the words

  "Yes, it's beautiful"

Standing on the ledge of my room, looking down

only sixteen, and bathing with dreams

of a warm summer night I could reach out and touch

with her song floating up on the breeze

  "I've gone with better-looking guys

  He's gone with prettier-looking girls"

She came to this island for good

living and working her solitary paradise

In reverie I dreamt her old life in those words

as it seemed she'd left something behind

And twenty years on, I feel I know it for sure

  "I don't need love affairs anymore"

So young, I knew all about love

In truth, it was all at a distance

but the romance of that place 

one could smell on the air

with the song of the English waitress

  "Can't you see? It's the chemistry"

But you sensed in those words was a pain

twisted like a knife to the heart

of a martyred memory of happiness

  "I am the rain, he is the sun" it sang

How pretty does the irony go

  "and now we've made a rainbow"

Remembrance is a hold in the soul

storing only significant treasures

And the meaning of the song and the waitress

is visited upon me through the years

in the fears and the tears and their measures

  "And if the whole world fell in love"

I feel her, I know her, that English waitress

  "just like me and my man"

If you could only run away from hurt

  "this would be beautiful"

But only Time sees you get back ashore

  "I don't need love affairs anymore"

Author's Note

Reviews

[Kerry O'Connor]

This is a remarkable triple portrait: of the waitress as she was captured in the boy's eye, the boy himself, poised on the brink of manhood, wondering what it's all about, and the jaded man the boy became, who has learnt all too well the meaning of the song.

[Crowley]

Wow....that was a musical my man...Its why I have a hard time believing completely that you do not believe in love. Sometimes there is malice towards love in your words, but your words evoke such an understanding of what love is that to not believe in it would not be possible.....sorry...not buying it brother. To be contrary and down about it is one thing, but this proves my point. Your zest for what love was, is and can be come through in spades in your writing, especially this one which read in sepia tones to me, love giving way to remembrence, giving way to nostalgia...which is still a form of love. Great writing Glyn.....I like looking under your petticoats...very revealing...lol.

[Amber Betty Marie Child..]

it seems like a classic with a decently consuming touch of the real poems that never become famous

[Amber Betty Marie Child..]

"Remembrance is a hold in the soul
storing only significant treasures"
ok sorry to say but im stealing this for my facebook status

[Fran Marie]

"And if the whole world fell in love"
I feel her, I know her, that English waitress
"just like me and my man"
If you could only run away from hurt
"this would be beautiful"

I love the fact that you incorporated the song lyrics thru~ out yourlovely poem it blends in perfectly because of the precise placement you exact~ your poectic verse plays in tune with the song and conjures up the most interesting and endearing images in the readers mind albeit it rather sad~ Well DonE I Say!

[ashley]

this is fantastic, i absolutely love the song woven in... i love this part:
"But you sensed in those words was a pain
twisted like a knife to the heart
of a martyred memory of happiness"
great write. 100/100 :)

[emmajoy]

Oh what a story this is .. and beautifully put .. the play between scene and song and how you interpret the combination of the two. That waitress playing her tape, remembering her past because she needs to perhaps - 'twisted like a knife to the heart ~ of a martyred memory of happiness' .. and you reading her mind, feeling your own past, sharing .. ' If you could only run away from hurt "this would be beautiful" ~ But only Time sees you get back ashore ~ "I don't need love affairs anymore"

I'll read this again ..

[Lola Nation]

I love music intertwined with writing...it so hypnotizes us and sets a mood or scene, this is well produced.