 | My Father who played badminton, a poem by Peter Menkinposted by Peter Menkin, FullMonday, July 6th 2009 @ 9:39 AM (not yet rated) |
The poem about my father's life as a writer:
My Father who played badminton
by Peter Menkin
There is a story about the screenwriter
Who faced the multitude of inquiry, and
Regarded the ministrations of his soul in
Concert with others, in a group experience
That brought to the little houses and manifold
Riches of Art Carney and the cigarette smoking
Jackie Gleason a merry mailman on twomountains.
My father played badminton in the backyard and
Hunt and pecked a radio writer's dream from atop
The empire state building with a young man named Allen,
Died young. With a Josh White on radio gramophones, and
Guy Lambardo with continuity through the Death Valley Days
And Ronald Reagan. This Highway Patrol of Ziv grade b was
Always an experience of Steve Reeves proportion, brought to
The candy counter heaven of the green ring wearing producer's
Wife and the Maybomb of writing old for the likes of Sean and
His comic duos who grace the pages of the puzzle writer's
Dream People magazine, and TV Guide with The New York Times.
WBAD New York, Philadelphia, across the Appalachians to a
Signal of more than 40,000 watts of broadcasting power to the
Delight of Westinghouse and staff names not forgotten in old
Alpine racing cars and house large in Westchester or Pacific Palisades.
From the streets of New York City, there were the loves of charity
In the beneficence of the Red Cross,and light houses for the blind
And sighted. This was my father before and after the tribunal of
The 50s, with Let's Make a Deal and Hollywood after the purge
Of ABC, NBC, and the CBS Network with national correspondents.
This ode of remembrance of makeup and the theatre from the
Elementary level of youth to the wonderful voice of the Cantor
Was and is a Life Magazine picture of Universal Fame and Hollywood
Bungalows. Do you like your milkshake: Chocolate. Do you like the pier,
Oh, yes. What is a Wyoming memory and a few stand up moments for
Reruns and Perry Mason and the guy who did it as The BountyHunter:
Dead of a magical mystery tour towards survival and another ride on a
Motorcycle like a movie star in a sports car race of Paul Newman Skill.
The child actor still lives, though Make Room for Daddy's little boy
Is gone and the remembrance of Sunset Strip and the foo foo is still
Yet to come, even to the likes of Broadway and comfortable seats of
Writer's Guild screenings on a summer's night with Billy from Superman
And the pretty girls who never stop coming to visit: Ah, stardom the
Lot man let's us in and the walk along the route is always a game of
Waiting and using a Royal Typewriter to hear the bell ring to bring in
The money in Guild time, residual after residual after residual so that
The Shadow Knows, oh yes Kimo Sabe Tonto is the masked man's friend.
Father's Day 2000
Marin County, California
