Madison Street: Coda

 "Coda" is the final poem in the series, "Madison Street". 

In music, a coda is a concluding section that signals the end of a piece or movement.

The word "coda" can also refer to the concluding part of a literary or dramatic work, or something that serves to round out, conclude, or summarize.

 

I hope readers who have been following the sonnet sequence were able to get a glimpse of what it was like in my neighborhood. 

I'm sure I could write another twenty-five sonnets on Madison Street, but that will have to wait for another time, if time allows.

 

[If you click on line 11, it will be explained]

 

"the boys flown to the belly of the beast"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Coda

 

So here we are, approaching three score ten,

“Boomers” from a lost millennium,

perched on Simon’s metaphoric park

bench, waiting, musing, I remember when . . .,

wise to what we knew, and what has come

to light since days of dancing in the dark.

 

And if we misremember, fantasize,

omitting secrets, cover-ups and lies—

the boys flown to the belly of the beast,

the pennyroyal cure, the preemie fraud,

the tender mercies of the parish priest­—

cut us some slack. Our innocence was flawed:

we failed to spot the specter at the feast,

and every one of us believed in God.

 

  

 

 

 

Listen to the Old Friends/Bookends theme HERE