You Is My Woman Now Poem by gershon hepner

“You is my woman, now, ”
is what I want to say now. How
I wish that that you’d allow
me to declare my love and wow
you while you’re listening to Ella.
You have always been my donna, Bella––
have I always been your fella?
Since I met you, Cinderella,
you have had no need for slippers.
Other suitors are day-trippers:
tell them all to tie their zippers,
and search around for other strippers.
All you’ve ever needed is
what I can offer you. It’s this:
a poem signed by me to whiz
you round and round, until we kiss.

Inspired by Linda and Ira Gershwin’s lyrics “Bess, You Is My Woman Now, ” which she was listening to this morning, sun inimitably by Ella Fitzgerald:


Porgy:
Bess, you is my woman now,
you is, you is!
An' you mus' laugh an' sing an' dance
for two instead of one.
Want no wrinkle on yo' brow,
Nohow,
Because de sorrow of de past is all done done
Oh, Bess, my Bess!

Bess:
Porgy, I's yo' woman now,
I is, I is!
An' I ain't never goin' nowhere 'less you shares de fun.
Dere's no wrinkle on my brow,
Nohow,
But I ain't goin'! You hear me sayin',
If you ain' goin', wid you I'm stayin'!

Porgy, I's yo' woman now!
I's yours forever -
Mornin' time an' evenin' time an'
summer time an' winter time.

Porgy:
Mornin' time an' evenin' time an'
summer time an' winter time.
Bess, you got yo' man.

Bess, you is my woman now and forever.*
Dis life is jes' begun,
Bess, we two is one
Now an' forever.
Oh, bess, don't min' dose women.
You got yo' Porgy.
I knows you means it,
I seen it in yo' eyes, Bess.
We'll go swingin'
Through de years a-singin'.

Bess:
Mornin' time an' evenin' time an'
summer time an' winter time.

Porgy:
Mornin' time an' evenin' time an'
summer time an' winter time.

Bess:
Oh, my Porgy, my man, Porgy.

Porgy: [simultaneously] My bess, my Bess.

Bess: From dis minute I'm tellin' you, I keep dis vow: Porgy, I's yo'
woman now.

Porgy: [simultaneously]
From dis minute I'm tellin' you, I keep dis vow:
Oh, my Bessie, we's happy now. We is one now.

*Sung as Bess repeats her part from 'Porgy, I's yo' woman now...'
through 'I's yours forever -'


10/13/08