Songs in Time

The first popular songs I remember
(I was age 7 in Burbank, California)
were Ella Fitzgerald’s
“I’m beginning to See the Light”

and “Along the Navajo Trail”
(Roy Rogers sang it).
A third was “Don’t Fence Me In,”
a Cole Porter song.
(Again Ella sang it.)

A fourth song all children knew
was “Maresydotes.”
It was 1944 and the War still on.
I think Sinatra sang it, but I’m not sure.

I had a Roy Rogers coloring book.
Trigger was gold,
the saddle brown with red and silver markings.
I don’t know how long I kept it,
but I made a horse of our oil tank
(at the left-hand side of our house as you faced it)

And there I rode
my saddle a gunny sack,
reins clothesline rope
while I sang these songs.

“Well, whaddaya know, it’s mornin’ already.
See the sunrise, so silver and pale.
It’s time to climb into my saddle
and ride the Navajo Trail.”