Pepper’d Memories

 

Yes — I was the walrus
so too the fool on the hill
I was the nowhere man
sometime I feel nowhere still

but when the Fab4 took the stage
and raised their voice in song
they roused my golden slumber
my spirit sang along

I strolled to strawberry fields
along sweet penny lane
and when miss Rigby died
I felt McKenzie’s pain

stowed in the submarine
and sailed beneath the waves
down with the octopus
among the coral caves

and when the sergeant
struck up his lonely hearts club band
I fell in step by step
to march off to Pepperland

but before I’d hit the road
I ended up wounded in my bed
a delinquent name of Maxwell
took a hammer to my head

he’d come through the bathroom window
I forgot to shut it tight
I should have known better
but it’d been a hard day’s night

my friends had called for help
doctor Robert came in time
I’d said doc don’t let down
he did not — and I feel fine

cops searched helter skelter
looked here there and everywhere
but they found clues for no one
I said let it be I didn’t care

leaving home, you won’t see me
I said heading out the door
when I saw her standing there
my lover from the night before

oh darling let’s go day trippin’
I want to hold your hand
down this long and winding road
it won’t be long to Pepperland

now we’ve come together here
me and my sweet belle Michelle
she’s been writing paperback novels
the kind the drugstores sell

we have no plans to get back
we’re swept up in the allure
of Lucy and her diamond skies
on our magical mystery tour

even with George and Johnny dead
that old magic’s not yet slipped away
because old Paully‘s discovered AI
so a brand new tune is on the way

it will be so very cool
to hear them once again
to remember those wondrous days
get to relive them now and then

*
rob kistner © 4/5/11
expanded version: rob kistner © 6/13/23

Poetry at: dVerse

 


40 thoughts on “Pepper’d Memories”

  6. This is very fun and well crafted. You were very deliberate with your song quotes-not just sticking them anywhere.
    I’ve done a very similar thing with a poem about Jimi Hendrix.

    Great work.

    Reply

  9. Clever stuff…I love it when music is mixed with poetry like this..I often use music as an influence myself but this is just great 🙂

    Reply

  23. I knew you would love this prompt and you did not disappoint. You did a wonderful job on this one. So many great songs in every verse! You knocked it out of the park, my friend!

    Reply

  24. Yes, The fab 4 inspired us all with their musical abilities. Charmed and delighted us with each song. This was an enchanted read, Rob and now I have songs spinning in my head.

    Reply

      1. lol – I spend my life spinning lyrics and poems. I see or hear something and there is that clicking of gears in my head. What can I create of that?

        Reply

  25. I love your Pepper’d Memories, Rob! I’m dancing in my chair and singing along to songs I know so well. I’m amazed at the number of lyric references you wove in. The line ‘sometime I feel nowhere still’ resonates with me, and I smiled at the lines:
    ‘he’d come through the bathroom window
    I forgot to shut it tight
    I should have known better
    but it’d been a hard day’s night’.

    Reply

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