the man with the black guitar

no the black man with the guitar and rollerskates

the busking skinny man in Gastown

with the voice – what a voice

– what a memory –

– someone who created ‘the scene’ –

and will never be famous

in the dark fall evenings

you could hear him

1/2 a block away

and my face would light up long before

ever getting to him

perched on the ass-freezing concrete

sometimes, oodles of months later

with no guitar: just that voice

the voice that can cut the dark blackness anyday

©2010 Rudolf Kurt Penner