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The Sunday Poem is published weekly, and strives to include the poet reading their work.
Peter Mladinic reads his poem at its conclusion.
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Brunswick Records, via Wikimedia Commons
Jackie Wilson in 1961
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The Son
Have you ever listened to your father,
Jackie Wilson’s rendition of “Tenderly”?
Several times? Well, that’s good.
The last I listened, it came through the dash
of my Wrangler at a busy intersection,
close to home, and I thought: this is about
as close to perfect as a made thing gets,
his voice driving the melody, the song
otherworldly. On that recording, featuring
Billy Ward’s Dominoes, sounds mimic wind.
“The evening breeze,” Jackie’s voice booms,
three minutes of spellbinding wonder,
first heard on a turntable. On the vinyl
album’s jacket, the Dominoes in white suits,
a blue backdrop, subtle yellow letters.
There was some excitement in the voice
of Danny O’Brien, a young truck driver,
as he told me he saw your dad in a limo
near 52nd Street, where we worked in ‘65.
Everyone knew who Jackie Wilson was.
Naively in ‘58, (I was only 10), I thought
it was cool he got shot by a woman
and pulled through; also, he was stabbed.
I can’t remember which came first,
the shooting or the stabbing, but I’m sure
I heard both happened. I heard him sing
“Tenderly” years later. It was recorded in ’51,
before I started kindergarten, before you
were born. You look remarkably like him.
This isn’t pleasant, but those injuries
may have factored into his collapse
at the Latin Casino. I saw him at the Apollo,
in ‘66. He wore a mint green suit.
He could have sung opera. I only recently
learned he and Elvis were friends. You look
like him, sound like him, but not exactly.
I hear “Tenderly,” elegance personified.
“The evening breeze caressed the trees.”
The proof is in the sound.
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Listen to Peter Mladinic read his poem
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Peter Mladinic’s most recent book of poems, House Sitting, is available from Anxiety Press. An animal rights advocate, he lives in Hobbs, New Mexico, United States.
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Listen to Billy Ward & His Dominoes (with Teddy Wilson on vocals) perform the Walter Gross/Jack Lawrence composition “Tenderly”
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Click for:
More poetry on Jerry Jazz Musician
“Bluesette,” Salvatore Difalco’s winning story in the 67th Jerry Jazz Musician Short Fiction Contest
More short fiction on Jerry Jazz Musician
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