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Joe

He’s got a smile bigger than Broad Street And everyone knows him by his first name “There goes the guitar man!”

When he walks by Butterflies jump To his rhythm and blues

And so it goes That when he got up on the stage And started to play Nobody noticed that There was no intro

In an instant We got swept away In his humility In his African light

Everyone fell in love That night With this wounded soul

All the women swooned And the men applauded The man with the guitar Who belted out lyrics With raspy breath “I just wrote this song two minutes ago”

And nobody noticed that there Was no hook Because everyone was on That train Everyone was waiting For an angel to appear

We all knew That these were not melodies But life And pain And longing For what was And is not But what can be

When the night lights came on Everyone stood to cheer

I was the only one Who saw the Lone butterfly Land on his shoe

Oh yeah, Butterflies are serious business.

Selected Poems — Patricia Demasky

© Patricia Demasky