She was the Girl with the Band……by Robert M. Katzman
by Robert M. Katzman © 7/25/14
Early morning
Driving east into the rising sun
Steaming coffee fogging my window
While awakening my senses
I wipe my windshield with a rag
And I see her
An airy wooden house
Pastel windows evoke
San Francisco’s Painted ladies
“For Sale” sign planted in her lawn
Tall oaks stretching
Leafy branches sheltering her house
How can she leave here?
I’m driving fast
With no place to go
I want to know more
I want to know everything
Her many card tables of cast off possessions
They’re calling to me, saying
“Stop. Come look at us, one more time”
Or maybe it’s her
An older woman
Long white hair woven into a
Cushiony braid — rich and sensuous
Woven like Jewish Challah bread on Shabbat
I have to see her
The way she moves has grace
Moving like people have been watching her
For a long, long time
Slender
Tight jeans
Lines Radiating in an arc from her eyes
Delicate arroyos framing her wide mouth
She has smiled for decades
I get out of my car and move toward her
Her suspicious brown eyes watching me
I can tell she knows what men see
When they look at her
After so many years she assumes it
She is beautiful and she knows it
Even Time itself is enthralled with her
I look away
She may be seventy, or more
I am twenty-two
This seems irrelevant as I wander through her tables
Eight-Tracks of ancient heavy metal bands
Pictures of rock stars from fifty years before
Autographed to her and framed
Sleeping bags, back packs with foreign flag patches
Albums and albums and albums
By musicians dead, overdosed, killed
I am learning her history
Soundlessly
She was the girl with the band
Jack Daniels bottles atop torn rock concert programs
Stacks of long ago posters from New York to Japan
Gigs where she heard the screams
From the comfort of a dressing room
Exotic clouds of smoke rising
From whatever she was smoking
Clothing scattered
Available when desired
She didn’t need to see the show
She was the girl with the band
I asked what was her name
She knew I was pretending to shop
She knew all about men
She shook my hand and said,
“Young man, why should you care?
My stuff is for sale, not me”
But then she casually caressed my face
Knowing it would freeze me
Her tanned skin the patina of parchment
She was irresistibly touchable
And she knew it
She was the girl with the band
She moved away from me
Rearranging some boxes with indifference
Cars racing by
Nobody stopping
She turned and looked at me
“I have an old couch for sale.
Want to see it?”
She walked up her stairs
Knowing I was watching
White braid swaying with each step
Knowing I’d follow her
I saw the old couch
Was it the source of so many of her smiles?
I heard the door close with a hush
She placed her hand on my shoulder
Turned me ’round to face her
Kissed me softly and slowly
Began unbuttoning my shirt
“Been a good long while, young man
An’ I know that look on your face
Damn yard sale can wait
Time stopped
We didn’t
I was the guy…with the girl…with the band
********************************
Publishing News!
Bob Katzman’s two new true Chicago books are now for sale, from him!
Vol. One: A Savage Heart and Vol. Two: Fighting Words
Gritty, violent, friendship, classic American entrepreneurship love, death, heartbreak and the real dirt about surviving in a completely corrupt major city under the Chicago Machine. More history and about one man’s life than a person may imagine.
Please visit my new website: https://www.dontgoquietlypress.com
If a person doesn’t want to use PayPaI, I also have a PO Box & I ship anywhere in America.
Send me a money order with your return and contact info.
I will get your books to you within ten days.
Here’s complete information on how to buy my books:
Vol 1: A Savage Heart and Vol. 2: Fighting Words
My books weigh almost 2 pounds each, with about 525 pages each and there are a total together of 79 stories and story/poems.
Robert M. Katzman
Don’t Go Quietly Press
PO Box 44287
Racine, Wis. 53404-9998 (262)752-3333, 8AM–7PM
Books cost $29.95 each, plus shipping
For: (1)$3.95; (2)$5.95; (3)$7.95; (4)$8.95 (5)$9.95;(6) $10.95
(7) $11.95; (8) $12.95; (9)$13.95 (10)$15.95 (15)$19.95
I am also for hire if anyone wants me to read my work and answer questions in the Chicago/Milwaukee area. Schools should call me for quantity discounts for 30 or more books. Also: businesses, bookstores, private organizations or churches and so on.
My Fighting Words Publishing Co. four original books, published between 2004 and 2007 are now out-of-print. I still have some left and will periodically offer them for sale on my new website.