Daisy Clover, Me and Thee
I live inside a Daisy Clover
World for a little while.
I see Natalie/Daisy on
The boardwalk,
And Christopher Plummer,
Right after The Sound of Music
Which I understand he just
Wanted to forget
And Daisy sings in someone
Other than Natalie’s voice
Just like in West Side Story
On her way to fame
As she stakes her claim.
Sweet Natalie has a song
That cries to be sung. It’s
1965 (or 35) and the music sounds
Just like it as Ruth Gordon
Croaks out some sounds
On the California (seems like Jersey)
Shore sounding tough for an old
Jersey gal, and a really young (just
Look at his skin) Robert Redford,
Of course, looking Robert
Redford-esk and a lot
Like what I imagine my
Late father-in-law looked
Like when he was Redford
In The Sting, and, Holy Cow,
That was so much like the guy
From the South-side who was my
Late wife’s dad and my son’s
Grandfather, my son looking
A lot like Redford, also. And,
Yes, even though it has been
Nineteen years since she died,
I still miss the blond-haired, blue/
Green-eyed girl who could have
Been Redford’s sister. She’s the
One who I met at fourteen and
Threw straw at on a church hay-
Ride and then courted seven
Years later, married, lived
With for twenty-six years and
Who then up and died in
A day. While I watch Natalie
Scream and shout and yell
Her Daisy Clover yell
Knowing that she, too
Died in a day, drowned.
As I watch I hear Barbra
Streisand singing “The Way
We Were,” and Natalie,
Christopher, Robert, Ruth,
My late, great father-in-law
And the blond-haired, blue-
Green eyed girl I loved
All dance together on what sure
Seemed like that Jersey shore.