Motorcade
When we pulled up to the house
When we pulled up to the house
In
our new Corvair, 1963
My
aunt burst through the door
And
ran down the walk screaming
“The
President has been shot!”
She
sobbed
“They’ve
killed the President.”
My
father never liked
To
listen to the radio
In
the car
I
didn’t understand
Five
years old
I
thought it was a movie
It
took me years
To
digest that moment
Life
magazine
Stars
and Stripes
Jackie
in black and
John-John
saluting
How
difficult for my parents
Transferred
overseas (Army)
The
missile crisis barely over
Now
this
When
the plane took off
Two
days later
It
could still have been
"The
Russians"
For
all anyone knew
The
next year
I
wanted my parents
To
vote for Goldwater
Because
I liked the name
Back
in America
I
had a friend
Who
idolized JFK
And
Lincoln
Later
still
There
were bronze busts of JFK
In
the art pavilion
At
the state fair
But
when I think of that day
In
my mind’s eye
As
we pull to the curb
At
my aunt’s house
We're
not in the Corvair
We're
in the convertible
-- Neil
