My Big Red Headphones

I grew up in New York city in the '70s.
One year I got a pair of big, red
AM-radio headphones for Christmas.
I listened to them every night
as I fell to sleep. I remember the '70's best
as clear as day, Summer Breeze,
Soulful Strut by Young Holt Limited,
The Things We Do for Love, James Taylor.
Today, 30 years later, I put JT
on my stereo as often as I do the Police.
You've Got a Friend takes me right back
to back-in-the-day, the _real_ back-in-the-day.
And it brings tears to my eyes every time.
I've often wondered what makes me cry so much.
I believe, in part, it's remembering the pudgy,
over-protected, helpless child I used to be,
being without guile and without
any idea that there might be particular things
a cool person says and does,
things a geek just wouldn't know about.
Every night, I put on my big, red headphones,
and I showed them proudly to my mother's
visiting friends. Looking back on it now,
I realize they must have thought, "You poor kid.
With luck you'll grow up and learn
what a geek you've been."
Geek! Geek?
What I realized when I grew up is that it takes
a real man to strut around proudly showing off
the likes of big red headphones.

(2005)