Is it the paradise I sang about as a child raised by Parrot Heads?
As I near the same age of that pirate, the number my dad had when I first heard it, that sweet harmonica wail still transports me to Margaritaville.
But come Monday, the piles of bills stack as high as a volcano and remind me that it might be five o’clock somewhere, but not here. Not yet. But this son of a son of a sailor has salt water running through my veins. The ocean and changes in latitudes call my name.
Any time the grind becomes too much, I’m knee deep in taking life too seriously, I remember the time my child mind picked exactly the wrong song to memorize and sing along with in public. Oh, the flushed faces of my parents as I crooned, “Why Don’t We Get Drunk and Screw…”
Lauren Oertel is a writer, editor, and community organizer based in Austin, Texas. She is a writing workshop facilitator certified in the Amherst Writers & Artists method. Her work has been published in Black Fox Literary, The Westchester Review, Gemini Magazine, The Sun Magazine, and more. She has been a winner and finalist in poetry, fiction, and nonfiction contests with The Letter Review, Writer’s Digest, Prime Number Magazine, and others. Lauren is the coauthor of the book Inside Out: A Texas Prisons Poetry Story, and her debut full-length poetry collection, Scars & Other Luxuries, is forthcoming with Finishing Line Press in November.
