Searching for Suzanne
(based on Leonard Cohen’s Suzanne)
“Suzanne takes your hand to a boat by the river…”
Judy Collins’s version transported me thousands of miles
to whatever river M. Cohen was trying to describe,
and to the heavenly girl who gave him tea and oranges “all the way from China.”
Are there still junk boats from China?
Will they sail me away from my junked-up house?
Mom and Dad aren’t bad people; they just don’t clean-up,
& they don’t mind when I play songs on the Hi-Fi over & over again.
Suzanne was one of Mom’s favorites; we sang along with Judy Collins a lot.
Years later, when my chocolate alto tone took shape,
I heard the original version with Leonard. He was still young and finding his voice—
not yet using the throbbing bass tone of Everybody knows and I’m your man.
“Hallelujah, hallelujah”—
Besides, Suzanne would had never taken me down to the river,
where a certain Jesus or Jésus
may had walked on the water after a big sail across the ocean—
No, no sailing for me.
I was in the prairies during the ‘70s,
and I was way too young to be shopping at the Salvation Army Store all by myself.
But Darling, I was forever changed,
regardless what time it was, or where I was going to end up:
New York City, West Side, by the Hudson—watching the ships as they sailed by,
wishing she’d showed up
to take my hand as we walked towards the river.