Lemon Tree Poem by James P. Roberts

I am being driven crazy!
The night is sweltering hot, the air so still
even the crickets have fallen silent.
Only in the basement of the house
on Northey Street is it cool,
but my little sister
has been playing her new 45 rpm single
of "Lemon Tree" by Trini Lopez
over and over and over
until I scream at her to stop.

It was my seventh birthday, but Mother
sent me to bed without supper.
Dad was out on the railroad
and my brothers were in Vietnam.
Years later, I found that old 45 rpm
at St. Vincent De Paul and bought it.

I have tasted a lemon and found it to be
everything that Trini Lopez said it was.