Classic and Contemporary Poetry
MOTOWN/ SMOKEY ROBINSON, by JESSICA TARAHATA HAGEDORN Poet's Biography First Line: Hey girl, how long you been here? Last Line: Strong now / you really gotta hold on me ... Alternate Author Name(s): Hagedorn, Jessica Variant Title(s): Motown / Smokey Robinson Subject(s): Popular Culture - United States | ||||||||
hey girl, how long you been here? did you come with yr daddy in 1959 on a second-class boat cryin' all the while cuz you didn't want to leave the barrio the girls back there who wore their hair loose lotsa orange lipstick and movies on sundays quiapo market in the morning, yr grandma chewin' red tobacco roast pig? ... yeah, and it tasted good ... hey girl, did you haveta live in stockton with yr daddy and talk to old farmers who immigrated in 1941? did yr daddy promise you to a fifty-eight-year-old bachelor who stank of cigars ... and did you run away to san francisco / go to poly high / rat your hair / hang around woolworth's / chinatown at three in the morning to go to the cow palace and catch SMOKEY ROBINSON cry and scream at his gold jacket Dance every friday night in the mission / go steady with ruben? (yr daddy can't stand it cuz he's a spik.) and the sailors you dreamed of in manila with yellow hair did they take you to the beach to ride the ferris wheel? Life's never been so fine! you and carmen harmonize "be my baby" by the ronettes and 1965 you get laid at a party / carmen's house and you get pregnant and ruben marries you and you give up harmonizing ... hey girl, you sleep without dreams and remember the barrios and how it's all the same: manila / the mission / chinatown / east l.a. / harlem / fillmore st. and you're gettin' kinda fat and smokey robinson's gettin' old so take a good look at my face / you see my smile looks outta place / if you look closer / it's easy to trace / the tracks of my tears ... but he still looks good!!! i don't want to / but i need you / seems like i'm always / thinkin' of you / though you do me wrong now / my love is strong now / you really gotta hold on me ... | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A TERROR IS MORE CERTAIN by BOB KAUFMAN THE TRAGIC CONDITION OF THE STATUE OF LIBERTY by BERNADETTE MAYER APOCALYPSE by JOHN FREDERICK NIMS SUPERMAN IS DEAD by RAFAEL CAMPO AFTER READING MICKEY IN THE NIGHT KITCHEN FOR THE THIRD TIME by RITA DOVE BARBIE'S MOLESTER by DENISE DUHAMEL OUTSIDE ROOM SIX by LYNN EMANUEL |
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