Patsy Cline: Crazy About Her

On my street,
She was Patsy "Klein" -
A one-of-a-kind
Country singing
Jewish cowgirl.
My mother
Suddenly
Stopped liking her
Quite so
Enthusiastically
As soon as she saw
Her last name
In print.
Not a lanceman
After all.

In German,
Klein = little or small,
As in Mozart's
Eine Kleine Nachtmusik.
Patsy was little
But her music
Was big.
Mozart wasn't
A Jew
But because he
Didn't sing on AM radio
Or appear
On Ed Sullivan,
His Austrian roots
Were overlooked.

On the other hand,
I don't think we had
Any recordings of Mozart
In the house.
His music was
Played by the
Wrong kind
Of
Big Bands.

Patsy fell
To pieces
In an airplane
Crash
And died at
31 years old.
But her talent
And spirit
Secured her
Indelible fame,
Tasseled leather jacketed
Gentile country
Background
And all
Even on the cobbled,
Sad and soggy
Semitic street
In Dorchester
I grew up on.

Eine kleine countymusik!
Eine kleine countrymusik singer.