Fifties Feature | Poem by Linda Straub

“50’s Feature”

by Linda Straub

Mother wore an off the shoulder dress

that swirled ’round her slender waist

and kissed a starched crinoline.

Father’s hair was ebony black,

a series of soft waves rolling down

his scalp, breaking on a rocky spine.

I sat in the back of their ’57 Chevrolet

eating popcorn and watching

James Dean on the Drive-in screen.

A squadron of speakers hung

from car windows where crackling

voices of movie stars faded in and out.

Sleep snuck up from behind

and stretched my weary body

across the wide back seat,

where my last sight

on that Summer’s night

was my Father’s wavy hair

dressing my mother’s bare shoulders.