A New Life
BY DAVID M. PERKINS
It was a new life, washed clean of the dust
and debris of Colorado into
Philadelphia, affordable then
even in the heart of Center City.
Anonymous in the bustle, unknown,
I strode the streets, listening to its beats,
letting its history seep deep in my
bones, whispering as a promise of home.
The Academy of Music, two blocks
away, had Isaac Stern on its poster,
for its Pre-Season Opening Gala!
the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto.
I sent them a letter, and a blank check,
explaining my penury, my desire,
my nascent arrival, I begged and scraped.
(I think in my waiting I even prayed.)
Tickets came—in Row 8, left of center.
The evening arrived, dressed in splendor,
chandeliers glittered, seats in red velvet,
I wore my best suit, a white silken scarf.
It was the end of Ormandy’s tenure,
the orchestra then the best in the world.
It is there that wan words paled and failed me,
it was more than home, it was Paradise.
David M. Perkins
Perkins’ third poetry collection, In From Forever, was released in September of 2023, following I May or May Not Love You and Post-Modern Blues, all published by Ice Cube Press. His poems, book reviews, and essays have appeared in Cæsura, Oziana, The Wild Word, High Plains Literary Review, The Chariton Review, Willows Wept Review, Caveat Lector, The Bloomsbury Review, Broad Street Review, Christopher Street Magazine, and for the Wordsworth Trust (UK) among others. He’s an amateur (avocational) scholar of Tchaikovsky and is currently owned by a blue-point Siamese cat named Wystan.
