Steven Hunley
06-16-2011, 11:39 AM
Just a Dream
by
Steven Hunley
I’d be the first to admit I like oldies, and the Doobie Brothers are no exception. We’re both Californians. Whenever I hear Michael McDonald’s song Sweet Freedom, it’s sure to remind me of you, even though now, due to what happened, you’re up north in Grass Valley, way out of reach, and I’m floating down here strung out with the flotsam jetsam that inhabits Long Beach.
The breakup shattered me. But I always had hope, hope for a new beginning.
As for me, with enough time I’d changed,
No more runnin' down the wrong road, dancing to a different drum.
You changed too, you were no longer,
Always searchin' for the real thing, living like it’s far away.
Finally you realized we’d both suffered transformations, and couldn’t be judged by the same set of rules. When you finally saw the light you decided to:
Just leave all the madness in yesterday. You’re holdin’ the key when you believe it.
Time went by, and after enough, we'd re-invented ourselves. I called by cell-phone, the one you didn’t know I had, and you answered, and promised without thinking, assuming I was over five hundred miles away.
A promise to picnic.
Then I knocked on your door. I already had the basket prepared with champagne and ice and smoked salmon. Remember that night you fed me smoked salmon? It’s the little things we laugh about most.
Keeping you to your word, I swept you right off your feet.
We were in a convertible with the top down. The road was whizzing by, and your hair was streaming back from your head, moving with the undeniable sensuality that was yours. The road looped downward from your place in the hills and we headed west towards the coast and our future together. It was our new beginning, a new important chapter of the novel that was us. It was late in the day and we were racing the sun to the beach. Poles whipped past, one after one. The lines stretched between were populated with sets of black crowns, the only witnesses to our escapade.
I turned up the song you liked so well. When I started to sing, you started to smile. I took my eyes off the road and turned to regard you and for a second my eyes drunk the incredible magic that's yours and yours alone.
Just being with you after all this time was intoxicating.
You are the magic. You're right where I wanna be.
I sang the song terribly off key and you started laughing, you just couldn’t resist. That was you, irresistible.
That was me, always singing off key.
Yellow northern California hills dotted with twisted scrub oak ran off into the distance on both sides and grand white puffy cumulus dotted the azure sky with precision and grace. It smelled just like summer.
Your kisses tasted like sweet exotic flowers.
You placed your hand on my knee and I was one with the world again, and why not?
I was with you.
I wasn’t sure where we were, or if we’d reach the beach by sunset. That’s when you told me to pull over and stop. The view was terrific, and the sun a fiery disc, ducking down down into the horizon, hiding, edging the clouds with gold. You placed you fingers over my mouth to hush me, and sang the last line yourself.
The light of tomorrow is right where we are. There's no turnin' back from what we’re feeling.
I was glad that you did. I always liked the taste of your fingers.
Then I woke up turned off the clock radio alarm. It was just a dream after all. I was home, back in Gasoline Alley where I belong.
http://youtu.be/SykNSv-1Dks
by
Steven Hunley
I’d be the first to admit I like oldies, and the Doobie Brothers are no exception. We’re both Californians. Whenever I hear Michael McDonald’s song Sweet Freedom, it’s sure to remind me of you, even though now, due to what happened, you’re up north in Grass Valley, way out of reach, and I’m floating down here strung out with the flotsam jetsam that inhabits Long Beach.
The breakup shattered me. But I always had hope, hope for a new beginning.
As for me, with enough time I’d changed,
No more runnin' down the wrong road, dancing to a different drum.
You changed too, you were no longer,
Always searchin' for the real thing, living like it’s far away.
Finally you realized we’d both suffered transformations, and couldn’t be judged by the same set of rules. When you finally saw the light you decided to:
Just leave all the madness in yesterday. You’re holdin’ the key when you believe it.
Time went by, and after enough, we'd re-invented ourselves. I called by cell-phone, the one you didn’t know I had, and you answered, and promised without thinking, assuming I was over five hundred miles away.
A promise to picnic.
Then I knocked on your door. I already had the basket prepared with champagne and ice and smoked salmon. Remember that night you fed me smoked salmon? It’s the little things we laugh about most.
Keeping you to your word, I swept you right off your feet.
We were in a convertible with the top down. The road was whizzing by, and your hair was streaming back from your head, moving with the undeniable sensuality that was yours. The road looped downward from your place in the hills and we headed west towards the coast and our future together. It was our new beginning, a new important chapter of the novel that was us. It was late in the day and we were racing the sun to the beach. Poles whipped past, one after one. The lines stretched between were populated with sets of black crowns, the only witnesses to our escapade.
I turned up the song you liked so well. When I started to sing, you started to smile. I took my eyes off the road and turned to regard you and for a second my eyes drunk the incredible magic that's yours and yours alone.
Just being with you after all this time was intoxicating.
You are the magic. You're right where I wanna be.
I sang the song terribly off key and you started laughing, you just couldn’t resist. That was you, irresistible.
That was me, always singing off key.
Yellow northern California hills dotted with twisted scrub oak ran off into the distance on both sides and grand white puffy cumulus dotted the azure sky with precision and grace. It smelled just like summer.
Your kisses tasted like sweet exotic flowers.
You placed your hand on my knee and I was one with the world again, and why not?
I was with you.
I wasn’t sure where we were, or if we’d reach the beach by sunset. That’s when you told me to pull over and stop. The view was terrific, and the sun a fiery disc, ducking down down into the horizon, hiding, edging the clouds with gold. You placed you fingers over my mouth to hush me, and sang the last line yourself.
The light of tomorrow is right where we are. There's no turnin' back from what we’re feeling.
I was glad that you did. I always liked the taste of your fingers.
Then I woke up turned off the clock radio alarm. It was just a dream after all. I was home, back in Gasoline Alley where I belong.
http://youtu.be/SykNSv-1Dks