POEM: "GIRL GOING UP (A SIXTIES POP SONG)"

GIRL GOING UP

/ A SIXTIES POP SONG

(WITH MONOLOGUE)

She was going up
the escalator,
I was going down
the escalator
in the Shopping Mall in the town.

She never knew
how could I tell her?
how much I cared,
I couldn’t tell her
as we rode, one up one down.

Every morning, I would see her
riding up the escalator,
every evening, riding homeward
dreaming all my dreams of her.
She was going up
the escalator,
I was going down
the escalator,
and I never knew her name.

Then came that… fateful morning,
it must have been destiny,
she turned, and for one long magical moment,
our eyes met across the barrier.
It must have been at that same instant
that her slender stiletto heel became wedged
in the metal grooves of the escalator step,
and as I watched her reach the highest point of ascent
she tugged that graceful foot, but it would not come free.
And as we gazed into each other’s eyes, helplessly,
I saw – first her toes, then her pretty ankle
drawn inexorably beneath that cold hard metal.
And even as she vanished
with smooth mechanical precision
beneath that cruel cruel floor,
through a spray of internal organs –
spleen, liver, kidneys, heart,
our eyes embraced and spoke
silent longing words of love
until even her eyes exploded,
and were gone…

She was going up
the escalator
I was going down
the escalator and
I never knew her name.

But now we ride
the escalators
forever hand in hand,
on the escalators
through the Shopping Mall
of my dreams