Guest Poet: Amy Bee

Soundtracks

1995 and he was all mine
not a lover not a friend
a thing in between
a highway meandering through scenery and city
destination unknown
or maybe we knew even then
that sooner or later we would have to pick a place
and settle in

We had a soundtrack then
we were young
and it was all about the music
he had long fingers
he knew how to make a string sing
and I had a friendly ear
I could listen and wander
through tone and timbre
doing drugs and staying up late
laying on the floor laughing at the audacity
of John Zorn

And Bill Frisell
every note played an inside joke
a thing in between
the beauties he brought home
and the men I tore through
kicked out so we could sit on the couch
with a pipe and ruminate
over Mike Patton’s mental health
and PJ Harvey’s latest take
on love

And lust
and bonds that burn hot and fast
and how every movie was about us
and every song was about our friends
and every album whispered secrets
that were private and lonely
until passed in between
me and him

Of course it would end

Life has a way of making you choose
life has a way of making it all okay
and we’ll never be a twosome again
but goddamn weren’t we a sight to see?
holy hell weren’t we fine as can be?
1995 and young and alive—
we had a soundtrack then
we had a soundtrack then
we had a soundtrack then

—Amy Bee

Amy Bee is a writer, storyteller, and cofounder of In a Nutshell Storytelling, a Sacramento-based live storytelling series featuring mostly true stories told by people who know what they’re doing. Through Nutshell, she’s helped build a growing community centered around the magic of showing up live to listen to one another. She also writes the Substack This Might Go Terribly, where she explores the process of being a human living anxiously, wanting to be brave anyway. Her memoir pieces have won a few awards and been published in a few cool places, including Salon, Ozy, Atticus, New Ohio Review, and HeartWood Mag, among others.