Day 23

"...one ought every day at least to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words." -Goethe

A song for today in memory of Bill Withers (1938-2020): "Ain't No Sunshine" from the indispensable Live at Carnegie Hall album. Probably best known for "Lean on Me" (an anthem for all sorts of tough times), Bill Withers is one of those artists whose voice is always a reliable source of soulful comfort.

A poem for today: Patrick Rosal's "Brokeheart: Just Like That" name-drops Bill Withers in the opening line. The speaker advocates dancing on your own in the face of heartbreak. Rosal credits his cousin with teaching him to "dance for the hell of it and dance to celebrate and dance to grieve." 

Brokeheart: Just like that

Patrick Rosal

• 

When the bass drops on Bill Withers’ 
Better Off Dead, it’s like 7 a.m.  
and I confess I’m looking 
over my shoulder once or twice
just to make sure no one in Brooklyn 
is peeking into my third-floor window 
to see me in pajamas I haven’t washed 
for three weeks before I slide 
from sink to stove in one long groove 
left foot first then back to the window side
with my chin up and both fists clenched 
like two small sacks of stolen nickels
and I can almost hear the silver 
hit the floor by the dozens
when I let loose and sway a little back 
and just like that I’m a lizard grown 
two new good legs on a breeze
-bent limb. I’m a grown-ass man 
with a three-day wish and two days to live.
And just like that everyone knows 
my heart’s broke and no one is home. 
Just like that, I’m water. 
Just like that, I’m the boat. 
Just like that, I’m both things in the whole world 
rocking. Sometimes sadness is just 
what comes between the dancing. And bam!, 
my mother’s dead and, bam!, my brother’s 
children are laughing. Just like—ok, it’s true 
I can’t pop up from my knees so quick these days 
and no one ever said I could sing but 
tell me my body ain’t good enough 
for this. I’ll count the aches another time, 
one in each ankle, the sharp spike in my back, 
this mud-muscle throbbing in my going bones, 
I’m missing the six biggest screws 
to hold this blessed mess together. I’m wind-
rattled. The wood’s splitting. The hinges are
falling off. When the first bridge ends,
just like that, I’m a flung open door. 

Works Cited

Pizzi, Rudi. Morning Dew.

Rosal, Patrick. "Brokeheart: Just Like That." Poets.org. https://poets.org/poem/brokeheart-just. Accessed 4 April 2020.

Withers, Bill. "Ain't No Sunshine." Bill Withers Live at Carnegie Hall, Columbia, 1972.