Ho-Ho-Kus, Hocus-Pocus, Abracadabra, and Moonachie too. Half-past Weehawken, under the neon starlight of the Jersey night, in the taverns of Hoboken, you find yourself broke, looking to find redemption, the sublime, and the Christopher Street line. These vagabond blues come in so many hues and road-worn shoes in a room of lost and found souls among the clinking of cups and bowls. They opine and drink sweet wine.
You say your father is a pawnbroker, and your mother is a Madonna, whispering chants of Hosanna. Your brother is a thief, quick on his feet, and your sister is beguiled with an unborn child. You tell me your loyalty is to the sun, moon, stars, and no one else.
There is graffiti on the walls. Up and down the fourteenth street down to Frank Sinatra Drive, the visages are cryptic like a triptych, almost anaglyptic. You call out my name and sigh because I was sly. I told you I was the color of none and one of them, but if the truth be told, I am the color of one, as none of them. But you still call me by my name. What is in a name? Oh, sweet-sounding name, how I love you to call me by my name, all the same.
In the blue shadows of the city is where you wear your golden charms. The gold clicks, flickers, and glitters around your ankles and wrists in the blissful bold afternoon sun. The autumn’s light falls upon us, and we are beholden. We are golden. I once heard a story about never falling in love with a beautiful woman with golden charms, as she would bring love harm.
Chorus
Her eyes and golden charms will capture your gaze, her perfume will attract you, her words will tame you, and her passions will turn you into love’s fool. Never fall in love with a beautiful woman with golden charms.
You say your father is a pawnbroker, and your mother is a Madonna, whispering chants of Hosanna. Your brother is a thief, quick on his feet, and your sister is beguiled with an unborn child. You tell me your loyalty is to the sun, moon, stars, and no one else.
Last Exit to Hoboken, 14th Street Rhapsody © Richard Anthony Peña 2019