'Remembering the Queen of Soul', by Jeremy Szuder
She was my own mother’s voice
when mom was reaching
as deep inside as she could
for the sound of a wing on
a tender prayer, but sometimes
she just couldn’t make it.
We would roll that album
right out its sleeve and
give it another revolution
and then i’d say, “I hear it now
mama, you were right.”
In my childhood, it was
demanded of me to learn
respect for the tell tale signs
of love as my childhood spun
in every direction known, and
the whole way, came that voice...
Calm, soothing, justifying.
and when I heard that voice
I hung my head sheepishly,
cause even at 7 years old,
I knew no voice that could
shake the foundation more
so than this one.
No microphone stood a chance,
and no man for that matter.
I grew up to one day become
a man myself and my mother sent
Aretha along to look after me.
Jeremy Szuder (he/him) lives in a tiny apartment with his wife, two children and two cats. He works in the evenings in a very busy restaurant, standing behind a stove, a grill, fryers and heating lamps, happily listening to hours of hand selected music and conjuring ideas for new art and poetry in his head. When his working day ends and he enters his home in the wee hours, he likes to sit down with a glass of wine and record all the various words and images that bear fruit within his mind. Jeremy Szuder only sets the cage doors free when the work begins to pile up too high. In this life, Szuder makes no illusions of being a professional artist in any way, shape, or form.
https://jeremyszuder.wordpress.com/