Gene McCormick- A Poem

The Caption: A Christmas Carole

 

Quiet lays over the chapel as the stout man sits at the piano, pulls the bench an inch closer to the keyboard and waits for the even-stouter star soloist who dramatically hesitates for thirty seconds before heavily walking to her music stand as hot lights gleam on the pianists bald head highlighting a pattern baldness which he used to hide with a comb-over but now has shaved the remaining semi-circle of hair which emphasizes the nakedness but not the gray stubble which is of no matter because the fifty people in the audience are there to hear Christmas season songs of a nature not usually heard (“See Amid The Snow,” “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel”) and the singer doesn’t have to clear her throat, launching immediately into a festive, tinkling tune.

 

The pianist is intense, fingers precise, their movements reflected in the backboard as his head bobs down toward the keys, then sideways in actions belying his reverent appearance of a dark blue blazer and dark grey slacks, playing with a competence that draws attention from his shiny head while the singer, her performance costume being an above-the-knee maroon dress that looks like a Hefty-bag smock and is partly covered by a tied-at-the-front black cardigan…all while standing in black Soviet charwoman shoes, a look which a necklace of dull gold-plate and indeterminate cabochon fails to revive, and is not enhanced by a deep v-neckline but she does have long, mouse-brown hair that lays straight on her head and past her ears until it comes to rest on her unample bosom, where a few curls have been imposed and drift slightly when she moves her head for angelic emphasis or nods to let the pianist know that she is ready to begin the next song and he looks at her wishing not that he could sing like a neutered harem slave but instead have her long hair and the mousey color be damned.

 

 

Brief Bio: Gene McCormick is reputed to have once dated 18 female members of the Morman Tabernacle Choir at the same time. There is likely little truth to the repute.