I Want You (She's So Heavy)

I WANT YOU (SHE’S SO HEAVY)

A cold, wintry December Friday night,

the snow-packed streets of St. Paul

making that sound unique to Winter

as the tires of my father’s Chevy Malibu

ride over them on Maryland Avenue

to your Aunt Ev’s and Uncle Harold’s.

The radio on, a song begins, like

I have never heard before, stark

simplicity, lead guitar

doubling melody, a lone voice

singing the same fourteen

word pattern over a hard

twelve bar Blues that are not

quite Blues. Is it heartbreak

that drives the singer, or

down on his knees pleading

or an outright public declaration?

Singing with a relentless

abandon, the repetitive

construction of the song

draws me seductively,

a Siren’s song, luring me

involuntarily into its spell

as I turn right on Marion Street,

intending to stop when I

reach your Aunt and Uncle’s,

my intention to stop thwarted

by a compelling need

to hear this song to its

conclusion. Round and

round, circling the block,

the song’s seemingly endless

Coda until in front of the

Mom and Pop neighborhood

grocery on the corner,

the song abruptly ends.

The spell broken, I hear, with

great dumbfoundedness, The

Beatles? The Beatlemania,

Sergeant Peppers, White Album

Beatles? You peer out the

kitchen window into the

dim lit street and see me

sitting motionless in the car.

As I get out of the car

and walk to the house,

the door opens, and

framed within its light,

you are a vision of beauty,

and I know that John Lennon

sent me a message,

sinking deeply into my

consciousness, to my heart,

“I want you. I want you so bad.”

Forever.

© 2015. The Book Of Ruth, by Deacon Bob Wagner OFS. All rights reserved.