Ode: The Capris

by Mark Halliday

from Tasker Street

How do I feel about "There's a Moon Out Tonight" 

by the Capris?

I thought you'd never ask

Marcia Koomen lived across Cherry Lane

getting tall, taller than me in fifth grade

and smiling behind her glasses, she knew something.

The summer nights in Raleigh were thick

with something bright in the dark; you could ride

bikes under the moon and in and out of

lampshine at the corner of Wade and Dogwood,

not caring about touching a girl, or, later,

not caring much still but happy to be a boy

who could some day "have" a girl, and be conscious of

a shivering beauty caught in the word girl

There's a girl at my side 

that I adore

-the Capris knew something all together

and it called for this new verb, to adore;

something out there ahead of my bicycle in the dark;

I cared a loy about Paladin on "Have Gun - Will Travel"

but did I adore him? Scotty Koomen, years older,

got sort of pae and brittle when he went to visit

a certain girl in his class, he seemed to have trouble

breathing...

There's a glow in my heart

I never felt before

- not exactly in my heart yet but it was

what would be there if I rode just maybe deeper down

Dogwood Lane in the busy dark.

Across Dogwood lived Ann Dailey

who had freckles and an awesome kind of largeness,

not fat but big and this made my eyes feel hot and burny;

she moved slowly doing chores in her yard,

her long tanning thighs seemed sarcastic

as if she knew soon her freckled beauty must positively

carry her somehow out, out and away...And

Shelby Wilson one night kissed her on the lips.

I saw it happen - on the sofa in the basement - 

her folks weren't home. Right on the lips!

Amazing lips are in your future, boy. That's

what the Capris were telling me; the North Carolinia moon

is natural and it can find you anywhere;

you have t let the moon paint you and your bike

and the picture of Elvis in your pocket

and it shines down on Marcia's hair

and on the thought of the green eyes of Ann Dailey.

Ride and wait, wait and watch;

you laugh, you shiver in the summer - cool - dark.

You speak of the Yankees and the Pirates but

cut a side glance at Marcia's tall shape

but when she says anything serious exasperate her

yelling Little Richard's wop bop alu bop

but this dodging, dodging will end -

somewhere - 

the Capris being on Marcia's side.

Baby, I never felt this way before

I guess it's because there's a moon out tonight

and once that shining starts

no amount of irony will ever quite ride the Capris out of town.

I picture a deep pool with yellow flowers drifting

on the surface. The song pours up

out of that pool.

Click here to listen to the Capris sing "There's a Moon Out Tonight."