H O P S C O T C H

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2002-03-01

My first remembered aesthetic experience. Before school age in a sunlight filled tomato-dark utility room with holey linoleum. I'm playing in a basket of dirty clothes by myself, the sun warming my face in the musty room. AM radio in small town Ohio happened to be playing Louis Prima's "I'm Just A Gigolo - I Ain't Got Nobody". His voice hits "I-I-I-I-I Ain't Got No Bo-o-o-dy" and shivers and I coil tight in a ball holding the intersection of the moment in as long as possible. Rolling several times over and over draped in socks and dirty t-shirts softened from wear and smelling like perfume.

And everything was beautiful and this is when the wordless gatherings began manifesting themselves. Upon sunlit dusty diagonals leaking out a corner basement window and upon Prima's scat. Heart beat confused for drum beat and myself forgotten.

And searching forever for this song tucked back in my head but never finding it in listening...only until years-and-years later.

Thank you, Louis Prima.



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