Call Me Please, Melissa/The
Real World - Susan Vosburgh
Call me
please, Melissa
Once you've seen one Mardi
Gras
You've seen them all...
Married women, afraid of cats--
(A better man than us, perhaps.)
A woman in the airport,
St. Louis, Missouri .
Talked about her son in the
war.
I wasn't listening.
She talked to someone who
read
Sports Illustrated
And who wasn't listening either.
She said he went out of surgery
And into emergency--
This was Viet Nam--
And she'd never been on a
plane before
We would run for president
If we were only older.
Maybe we'd look thirty-five
If I stood on your shoulders.
But if we can't run the country,
Can't we at least govern our
own passion
Which sounds like feminism
But it's unrequited love...
I watch the red light on the
stereo
As "it might as well be spring"
Plays over and over for no
reason.
Who makes the waves
And who drowns in them--
Who makes the waves
And who drowns in them?
Call me please, Melissa--
I couldn't sleep the night
we talked
About the war
If I did enough theatre
And made as many jokes,
The threat would go away
And we wouldn't have to go
into politics....
Who makes the waves
And who drowns in them--
Who makes the waves
And who drowns in them?
Call me back, Melissa--
Once you've seen one Mardi
Gras
You've seen them all.
@ 1985 by Susan Vosburgh