Who Do You Love? by Robert Cooperman

                   Alexander Rabb CC



Who Do You Love?


When that old Willie Dixie anthem
starts to blast from my car radio,
I crank the volume so high
that even with the windows 
hermetically sealed, I’m sure 
the geese in the park are squawking
in harmony or horror,
as they rise off the lake.

Oh, life is loud and sweet
as I sway behind the wheel,
one guy standing at a street light
staring as if at an ancient madman
as I whip around the corner,
then slow to avoid the attention
of the patrol cop always lurking
in the high school parking lot.

And I’m eighteen again,
my driver’s license squeaky new
in my wallet, all that’s missing:
some friends to share the ride with,
or better, Beth, whom I didn’t meet
until ten years later, and wooed her 

with Keats, Yeats and tunes by the Dead,
our life stretched like a long
straightaway of endless novelty.

​

Robert Cooperman's latest collection is THE GHOSTS AND BONES OF TROY (Kelsay Books).  Forthcoming from Finishing Line Press is the chapbook, ALL OUR FARE-THEE-WELLS, Cooperman's latest love letter to the Grateful Dead.

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