your voice is like whiskey
poured through gravel
and hardship
it teaches us something
that song without stones
of an age can’t deliver
your music of scars
moves on chords
built from pain
long suffering sounds
we’d give our last heartbeat
to sing even once
your implausible poise
plays a plaintive arpeggio
climbing the sequence
of notes that express
the best senses of
wounded humanity
Vagrant Poetry 