The Saga of Rufus and Leona

by Darren W. Palmer

Leona:
My darling drummer man
Capable ambitious and in command
Snarling, popping and be-bopping those skins
With a passion and purpose haunting and grim.

Your passion envelops me. It speaks of pain.
Pain that cannot be controlled.
Yet your majesty intrigues my humbled soul.

Drummer man, mellow. So alive with the night.
Fill the voids in my tortured life.

Rufus:
Magnolia. Forbidden flower –
Cause of my contempt.
Yet my urge for you will not relent.

Magnolia flower - a latent prize.
The seeds of your pedals I despise.
I’m trapped like a Genie in bottle of pain
With illusions of success calling my name.


Together: (chorus)
Rufus and Leona kindred souls with desperate hearts
Helpless in a society that keeps them apart.

Leona:
Heartsick, desperate me –
Black and blue for all to see.
Angry, defeated you –
Harborer of hate, our love eschewed.

Rufus:
My tunes are all blues now, and my pride
Has hitched a ride.
My faith has found a ridge
Atop the Brooklyn Bridge.

Together: (chorus)
Rufus and Leona full of self-doubt.
Rufus and Leona turned love inside out.