Jackie Gleason Part Three: NORTON!

III. NORTON!

NORTON! Thou shouldst be living at this hour!
NORTON! Thou hast more wit to stand alone
than all the foils who rode thy wake to glory;
NORTON! Gentle Light and Friendly Neighbor:
A Ray of Sun Behind the Moonfaced Moon.

NORTON! I sing my song for thee as well,
for who can sing of Ralph, and not of thee?

NORTON, who lives one flight upstairs with Trixie;
NORTON, who always enters without knocking,,
and all too often bears a cruel rebuff;
NORTON, who always starts from Swanee River,
and punctuates each elegy with tears -

NORTON! I sing my song for thee as well,
for who could sing of Ralph, and not of thee?

NORTON! Horatio to Kramden’s Hamlet.
NORTON! Lithe and guileless – as if Abel
had lived to rain forgiveness down on Cain.
NORTON! Beowulf was never braver
confronting filthy depths and wounded beasts!

NORTON! I sing my song for thee as well,
for who could sing of Ralph, and not of thee?

NORTON, you are a goofy, vested angel.
NORTON, you are the Raccoon of the Year,
but not for a want of better offers.
NORTON, I’d put up with your garbled logic
to have you by my side as Hell’s Mouth yawns.

Norton,
I sing my song for you as well -
for who can sing
of glorious timing
and hairbreadth escapes;
of low comedy
and high fidelity;
of what it means to be men,
and what it means to be friends -
for who can sing of Ralph,
and not of thee?