Slack Guitar

Night or day, doesn't seem to matter anymore. Short wave, I think it's Mali, I recognize that picking but I don't understand the language. Not that unusual for me. Post a note that Bela and Edgar play next week on Mountain Stage. Eight next Saturday, I need to remember. Listen for the mission bells, no, that won't work, the bells are just golden rings. Go away my lover. Great song. I have no idea who it is. Justin really has to start doing some original material. Ultimately, covers don't cut it.

She took my dog and caught a train going north,
like nothing corrosive had happened.
Nothing, really, except I held her
and licked that hollow where two bones meet.

A joint, a glass of wine, a screaming in the distance,
another novel event, like a wolf culling
the weakest link from a herd, nothing
unusual about that, happens every day.

Turn the radio off, listen to the wind,
try and understand what bares no meaning.
Marks on a page that might be words
or maybe a formula that produces bubbles.

Just rain on the metal roof, like
I said, you listen long enough, everything
sounds the same. Quatrains stretching
into the future, like a mad drummer.

There would need to be a refrain, something about her leaving, the dog, the train, I'll leave the actual music up to you since I don't play anything and have a deft ear. There should be several instrumental breaks. I imagine a waling string thing happening behind it all, maybe a cello. When the sun rises, through the fog, we see his reflection, distorted, in an eddy near the bank of a river. He appears thoughtful or maybe just stupid, his eyebrows arched as a question. Then a tow of barges, pushing upstream. Focus on the wake, as if it meant something. Very continental if you subscribe to anything regional. The mail must be delivered. He talks about what might have been. We get some of this on tape, but the battery is weak, or there's a bad connection, and the voices are distorted, what we hear are sounds like tree-frogs, almost just noise. But something. Sense is just beyond my reach.