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"Les Vieux Amants"
by
Kit Rohrbach
Tonight as my arthritic ankle nestles
Into the sunken small of your bad back,
My crooked finger runs along the slack
Line of your gray jaw. Sclerotic vessels
Slow blood to muscles cramped like pretzels.
Beneath my head I hear the creak and crack
Of your sore shoulder; my sacroiliac
Complains as joy and comfort wrestle.
It does not matter. Others might eulogize
Romeo and Juliet but Shakespeare
Never gave them time to realize
The length and depth of secrets we hold dear.
You kiss the crow's feet etched around my eyes;
I whisper words of love in your deaf ear.
About the Author
I lead an unexciting life. I've never biked across the Australian Outback, worked undercover for the FBI, or been kidnapped by aliens. Oh, wait — maybe I've been kidnapped by aliens. That would account for those annoying memory losses, since I'm quite sure they have nothing to do with my age.
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Bed of Roses Love Sonnet Contest Winner
Finalists
On July 4th, help us celebrate the 35th Anniversary of A Prairie Home Companion and the Fourth of July with a free live nationally broadcast show from Avon, MN.
From Garrison Keillor:
“When I was 16, Helen Fleischman assigned me to memorize Shakespeare’s Sonnet No. 29, ‘When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes, I all alone beweep my outcast state’ for English class, and fifty years later, that poem is still in my head. Algebra got washed away, and geometry and most of biology, but those lines about the redemptive power of love in the face of shame are still here behind my eyeballs, more permanent than my own teeth. The sonnet is a durable good. These 77 of mine include sonnets of praise, some erotic, some lamentations, some street sonnets and a 12-sonnet cycle of months. If anything here offends, I beg your pardon, I come in peace, I depart in gratitude.”
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Robin & Linda Williams are among the most popular guest performers of A Prairie Home Companion (they also appeared in the movie, have performed as part of the The Hopeful Gospel Quartet, and made appearances as Marvin & Mavis Smiley). This CD features some of the duo's best harmonies from the show. Among the 12 tracks are familiar fan favorites, including "For Better or Worse", "Visions of Mother and Dad", "Tied Down, Home Free" and the title track. A collection that is muy bueno!
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