-Patti Paige Requiem-

“Patti Paige puts-out”––

I was told this along with others of my age group

By those older than we who said they knew Patti Paige put-out.

––The girls we knew would hang around the corner

Until their fathers tracked them down.

(It wasn’t hard to do, as their houses

Were pressed against our houses)

But these were the neighborhood girls,
The girls who "should know better,"

Who’d hang around on summer nights,
Leaning toward the "Platters" crooning from the dashboards:
"Heavenly shades of night are falling, it's twilight time.."
But they didn’t put-out.

––It seemed to be it was only Patti Paige who put-out.

This is what we learned because those older than we told us so.

No one I ever knew ever knew Patti Paige.

––But I actually laid eyes on her once.

My second cousin Donald Cicci pointed her out to me

As we invaded the Saint Anthony of Padua Church "Festa",–
Center at the enclave of the great and powerful Portuguese,
Three neighborhood blocks to the west at a planet's distance.––

––I noticed Patti from a crowd away, but clearly, and when

Donald said: “Let’s get back to the corner” I said: “No”.

––I watched her as she bent her torso forward in laughter,

As she sipped soft drinks with her friends.

I watched her as she danced across
The bandstand’s floor, girl to girl in sweet cheek to cheek.––

––She became my sole interest in lingering there,

More noteworthy, more intoxicating with each sliding step,
Nearing exotic when considering the stories told about her.
She seemed as something forbidden that shouldn’t be forbidden;
Nearing unapproachable;

A low-hanging fruit yet still out of reach as the ancient fable goes.––

––I sat in the gallery of opinion, witnessing her accusers

Convict her in the court without substance,
And although some are dead, some are living.––

––The dead went believing from their mouths that Patti Paige put-out.

Those still living spin tall-tales to the young amongst them,
Perpetuating the myth of the night they were told
By the elders amongst them that "Patti Paige put-out".

––No one I know or knew, or have reason to recall,

Knew Pattie Paige as I did, or as I remember now because,––

Well, I once saw her dancing.

Quequechan / c. 1957