Teddy Thompson Croons Leonard Cohen
by Natalie Padilla Young
tonight will be fine, will be fine, will be fine
It’s not even a love song,
it’s the last drop of milk on dry cereal: the I that knows small
windows, bare walls, a finale of soft
naked lady: a sighing stripped, a woman.
(Remember that first side sway, first spinning hug
with someone of possibility? A lot of sweaty skins ago.)
Not just ooh-la-la slow stuff, also others
with beats, a call to feet, to hips,
to who must swing, must knock the head back
in time—not century time, music time—4:4, two-step, whatever.
(Try not to remember. You still feel
a grapefruit clenched in your chest.)
Maybe it’s a full room in coordinated sigh. I know
from your eyes, and I know from your smile
An exhale in, out of
that mouth. Maybe things will work, maybe just fine.
​
(A lot of things conjure craving,
but he’s only a man, a man too thin singing sweetly.)
At the end, there is plenty and not enough
to be so brave and so free In this place without
explanation, put Teddy on repeat. Teddy repeats
Leonard and someone hums along
for a while
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I must admit I have no clarity with this one—is it the poem or the song that I’m attached to? I wrote this when I heard Teddy Thompson cover Leonard Cohen’s “Tonight Will Be Fine,” initially thinking the lyrics were “tonight we’ll be fine.” I sent this little guy out quite a few times and then benched it for years, until a few months ago when I decided to revive and revise. Maybe go listen to Teddy sing Leonard and see what you think.
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NATALIE PADILLA YOUNG co-founded and manages Sugar House Review. Author of All of This Was Once Under Water (Quarter Press, 2023). www.natalieyoungarts.com/about