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Somerville poet Jesse Diamond delivers a poem she wrote 40 years ago.
Proud Mary and the Latest Killing
for John Lennon
Proud Mary rides the train from Concord when she gets on she’s talking
and she doesn’t stop until she gets off
But even then she goes on and on i think Mary’s a pain
she is a pain a pain the way the court jester was or the fool
She knows just how to get me today i was correcting homework when she
interrupted wanting to know directions somewhere
When i said i didn’t know them she just kept on talking
I started getting irritated and upset i suppose i was already upset
With this latest killing i told her she was
interrupting my work and she had the nerve to tell me i wasn’t working
What are you a teacher she said teaching isn’t work
Getting down on your knees is work being on your knees
Scrubbing floors is work bringing up four children like i did is work
What you do isn’t work it just makes your brain sweat that’s all
Don’t be so down in the mouth your life’s not so bad
Youve got a good thing going
When we got off the train Mary went her way and i went mine
I noticed her thick legs in dark hose i wondered if she was going to work
If her legs were thick from scrubbing floors from being down
on her hands and knees, i started to think she’s right
My life is good i should smile more but i was irritated and
Upset at the latest killing of a good man
This damn country is so violent it teaches violence on tv
in the movies Get a gun bang bang
Send our sons to war bang bang
Shoot their legs off bam bam
Blow their heads-up BAM!
Be a man Be A Man BE A MAN!
I went into the diner by train stop i shook the jukebox
BRING HIM BACK! i cried
Mary don’t you know this latest killing brings me down
cause all those strawberry fields are gone gone forever
gettin high gettin high
gettin high
— Jesse Diamond
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