Red-Headed Restaurant Cashier

Shake back your hair, O red-headed girl.

Let go your laughter and keep your two proud freckles on your chin.

Somewhere is a man looking for a red-headed girl and some day maybe he will look into your eyes for a restaurant cashier and find a lover, maybe.

Around and around go ten thousand men hunting a red-headed girl with two freckles on her chin.

I have seen them hunting, hunting.

Shake back your hair; let go your laughter.

Lines Written for Gene Kelly to Dance To

Spring is when the grass turns green and glad.

Spring is when the new grass comes up and says, “Hey, hey! Hey, hey!”

Be dizzy now and turn your head upside down and see how the world looks upside down.

Be dizzy now and turn a cartwheel, and see the good earth through a cartwheel.

Tell your feet the alphabet.

Tell your feet the multiplication table.

Tell your feet where to go, and watch ’em go and come back.

Can you dance a question mark?

Can you dance an exclamation point?

Can you dance a couple of commas?

And bring it to a finish with a period?

Can you dance like the wind is pushing you?

Can you dance like you are pushing the wind?

Can you dance with slow wooden heels

and then change to bright and singing silver heels?

Such nice feet, such good feet.

So long as grass grows and rivers run

Silver lakes like blue porcelain plates

Silver snakes of winding rivers.

You can see ’em on a map.

Why we got geography?

Because we go from place to place. Because the earth used to be flat and had four corners, and you could jump off from any of the corners.

But now the earth is not flat any more. Now it is round all over.

Now it is a globe, a ball, round all over, and we would all fall off it and tumble away into space if it wasn’t for the magnetic poles.

And when you dance it is the North Pole or the South Pole pulling on your feet like magnets to keep your feet on the earth.

And that’s why we got geography.

And it’s nice to have it that way.

Why does duh Mississippi River wind and wind?

Why, dat’s easy. She wind so she git where she wanna go.

Mississippi, Rappahannock, Punxatawney. Spell out their names with your heels.

Where duh towns uh Punxatawney and Mauk Chunk? Why, yeanh day’s bof in Pennsylvan-ee-eye-ay.

And dat’s why we got geography.

Left foot, tweedle-dum—right foot tweedle-dee, here they go.

When Yankee Doodle come to town, wot wuz he a-ridin’ on?

A buffalo? A elephant? A horse?

No, no, no, no. A pony it wuz, a pony.

That’s right—

Giddi-ap, Giddi-ap, Giddi-ap, Giddi-ap.

Whoa! Whoa!

Slabs of the Sunburnt West

1

Into the night, into the blanket of night,

Into the night rain gods, the night luck gods,

Overland goes the overland passenger train.