Mumbly Joe and Ramblin' Rose

I had to search for this poem last night to read to my husband because when he said 'I love you too' as we were about to sleep, it sounded like he said 'my feet'...which wasn't even close. He's kind of a mumbler at times. And...I'm kind of a rambler at times. I wrote this poem for no particular reason (at the time)...but when I read it to my husband last night (actually very early in the morning of this, our 2nd anniversary)...we realized I was writing about us before we were even an 'us'. ;)

Category: Soul-of-Thought Revival

Journal: *VOICE* ("unthought-like thoughts that are the souls of thought")

Date: 3-27-2005

mumbly joe and ramblin' rose...

by Felina Lune Kavi

mumbly joe,
as the story goes,
has humbly mumbled
little more than hello
to his childhood sweetheart,
ramblin' rose--
since she broke his spirit
all those years ago.

old mumbly joe
wasn't much for a show,
let alone for conversation...
he didn't want to seem slow.
he'd just mumble one-liners,
hoping no one would know
he was a little bit odd
and his voice was too low.

but that ramblin' rose
wouldn't just let it go
that he was incomprehensible
even at his hello.
and she had a strange affinity
for letting people know
their particular problems
before they have time to say no.

he fell in love with her though,
wouldn't just let her go
because of misunderstanding
from a ramblin' rose.
so he mustered all his courage
and said i love you to rose,
crystal clear he thought,
since he said it really slow.

but miss ramblin' rose
just wrinkled her nose
and let go with a laugh
like he'd told her a joke.
then she rambled on projection
in her usual monotone,
and she rambled on articulation
so joe just headed home, alone.

and that mumbly joe,
as he had always been known,
never told a soul all these years
about old ramblin' rose.
yet it was common knowledge,
after rose had a stroke,
that her last discernable words
were 'i love mumbly joe.'

still nobody told
old mumbly joe,
they all figured he died
a long time ago.
but his legend still lives
in a story that grows
just as tall and as windin'
as a ramblin' rose.