Summer 2022
Guitar Noire
Like a wild wind blowing
I rode the highway
not quite knowing
night from day
Freedom
sent me to him
and freedom
sent me away.
He was a mission
from my past
a love that could
not hope to last
and when
I saw him holding
fast
to the wrong woman
I almost laughed.
Am I supposed to
cry?
Or do I pine and sigh?
My footsteps weren’t quiet
in the wake of harsh night.
She led him down a
ghastly road
of shame
and sorrow.
A bright tomorrow
was not meant to be.
From tenderness
he did flee.
Love would have
held him
Love would have
compelled him
to live with honesty.
What was he to do with me?
I was his conscience
he was shredding.
I was his memory
never forgetting
the man he used to be.
It was a long slide
for him
to cashier his destiny.
His was a story I didn’t want
to see.
The guitar noire
called him from afar
And it closed in on him
Waves crashing on his face
till his life became
the utter disgrace.
So glad was I that I’d walked
away
But I too had my own heartache
in play.
I tossed his memory into the wind
that wild wind blowing
From where did it begin?
From where did it end?
We were enemies then friends,
then enemies again.
From the twinkling of
time’s knell
I felt
his pleas
along a rocky shore
The strings of
his guitar noire
played no more.
And into the rushing wind
I soared,
Toward him
and the heart that called
from the edge of his pit.
Oh, I’d wanted no part
of it
till forgiveness bid
me look once more
at a man who was
sinned against
more than sinning
And from that awakening
came my beginning
a wild wind rushing
toward me
with the certainty
of his life and mine:
a destiny that had
intertwined
without my knowing.
And once I knew
that truth
the end notes
carried me to
the highway
where
with the freedom
of a wild wind blowing
night turned into day.
