july / lucy

Caderas, Daniela

«The morning sun touched lightly on the eyes of Lucy Jordan. In a white suburban bedroom in a white suburban town. As she lay there‚ neath the covers dreaming of a thousand lovers till the world turned to orange and the room went spinning round.
At the age of thirty-seven she realized she’d never ride through Paris in a sports car with the warm wind in her hair. So, she let the phone keep ringing and she sat there softly singing little nursery rhymes she’d memorized in her daddy’s easy chair.
Her husband, he’s off to work and the kids are off to school, and there are, oh, so many ways for her to spend the day. She could clean the house for hours or rearrange the flowers or run naked through the shady street screaming all the way.
At the age of thirty-seven she realized she’d never ride through Paris in a sports car with the warm wind in her hair. So, she let the phone keep ringing as she sat there softly singing pretty nursery rhymes she’d memorized in her daddy’s easy chair.
The evening sun touched gently on the eyes of Lucy Jordan. On the roof top where she climbed when all the laughter grew too loud. And she bowed and curtsied to the man who reached and offered her his hand, and he led her down to the long white car that waited past the crowd.
At the age of thirty-seven she knew she’d found forever as she rode along through Paris with the warm wind in her hair.»
Sheldon Allan Silverstein, «The Ballad of Lucy Jordan» (1974)

Basel, 2018