She hears her son’s name
over and over, “That’s All Right”
played eleven times.
Memphis sits by the radio
while he’s gone to see Autry
in Goldtown Ghost Riders.
If you’re going to have a famous son,
you already know before it happens,
but still, it seems as if they’re saying
he died, instead of what they do say—
this boy who used to sit on the curb
at the corner of Main in a sailor hat,
bright and earnest, but oh!
the city flinging itself into him even then.
Who could say when the awful
moment would be, when the child
would step off into one particular song
as if into heavy traffic?
Too late to save him now.
Gladys and Vernon rush down
opposite aisles of the movies.
Nothing to do but get him out of there
and down to WHBQ.
Tell him the disc jockey wants him
to recall as best he can
his mortal life, on air.