Exotica

By John I. Blair

They came late to the family reunion
And what an entry they made!
We were all Fords and Chevies;
They drove an open-top Karman Ghia,
(The first one we’d ever seen),
Foreign-looking and racy.

We were all Kansas and Oklahoma
Twangs and nasalities.
She had an accent we couldn’t place
And an unfamiliar name,
Maybe German?
Maybe French?

We (the young ones) mostly
Had never been farther afield
Than a state or two from home;
He’d gone all the way to Europe,
He’d seen Paree,
And he seemed excited.

Mouths gaped,
Eyes stared,
Tongues wagged,
And all because we saw them
As out-of-pattern, strange,
Exotic to our life.

Turned out
Sophie was from Montana,
The car from a dealer in Butte,
And my good cousin Gerald
Was just delighted to see us again
And introduce his new wife.

©2003 John I. Blair