The King

He wasn’t supposed to move
but couldn’t hold still
and I felt like that,
so when he sang I listened.

“Sit still,” my parents said;
“Take your seat,” the school insisted,
until I felt like a tree in a storm
struggling to free itself.

But the King understood,
though when he was drafted
and the Army cut his hair
Pat Boone fell out.

The world’s changed now; it had to.
“Nothing stands still for long,”
I was told but wouldn’t listen.
“Sit still,” my parents said.

—Nicholas Campbell