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June 29, 2024

Soundtrack

Melissa Fite Johnson

 

Elementary School:

1990 time capsule
to be opened in 2000 (the future!)
Beach Boys my favorite
everyone else wrote New Kids on the Block
I wrote New Kids on the Block

Dance Class:

Paula Abdul’s “Forever Your Girl”
Mariah Carey’s “Vision of Love”
I watched my plié in the mirror
not quite match everyone else’s

My Brother’s Car:

Young MC’s “Bust a Move”
but I heard “Hey Buster Move”
my brother laughing
Lis we’re going fast!

Middle School:

songs about sex
I didn’t know were about sex
I sang “New Age Girl” all over the house
my brother said not to
my mom said go ahead
she didn’t know either

High School Heartbreak:

Aerosmith’s “Angel”
Mariah Carey’s “Always Be My Baby”
I didn’t even know
how to write poems yet

Friendship:

They Might Be Giants’ “Birdhouse in Your Soul”
station wagon tape deck
driving down Main alongside
everyone we’d known since kindergarten

College Boyfriend #1:

Phish

College Boyfriend #2:

Insane Clown Posse

College Boyfriend #3:

Elliott Smith

Meeting True Love:

Frank Black’s “The Swimmer”
sharing an umbrella
looking at him until he caught me
pretending not to feel him looking too

Midlife:

the bands I loved then
washing dishes by hand
the sink a time machine
each bowl a different year

Melissa Fite Johnson is the author of three full-length collections, most recently Midlife Abecedarian (Riot in Your Throat, 2024). Her poems have appeared in Ploughshares, Pleiades, HAD, Whale Road Review, SWWIM, and elsewhere. Melissa, a high school English teacher, is a poetry editor for The Weight, a journal for high school students, and Porcupine Lit, a journal by and for teachers. She and her husband live with their dogs in Lawrence, KS, where she co-hosts the Volta reading series at the Replay Lounge.