We Could Take the A Train to Far Rockaway
Sylvia Manning
Discover among other things if any mother
there still knows
the songs they sang to her when she was
young
if any father knows how early rhythm
matters
a baby’s whole life long, rockaway
steady rhythm
more than even what’s sung
like the A train matters more than for
today’s travel
farther into mid-town. Don’t
the syllables themselves
make you need to remember the jazz line?
Remember another time, your own far
rockaway
dream clime where you steadily rock in
rhythm,
training your heart to trust and wait for
the gift of beat?
Plus song when we reach a certain
destination?
And we reach it every time, every time,
all together
on the A train, to Far Rockaway.
We need to take it.
From Parting Gifts, winter 2001
