Listen to Richie
Havens’ guttural
grace from ’69
and believe how she
really does
break just like a little girl
and you feel
like that cool moon’s a banshee
hiding beyond
those shadowed Irish mounds
hiding to keep
you alive though wailing
and keening to
warn you or her or wound
your already
ruptured heart, impaling
it with Richie
rasping Dylan’s lyrics
and you’re
hiding so you won’t break apart
like a bleeding
knight decrying pyrrhic
victory when
that howling spirit starts
to caress and
carry you beyond grace
to her
Otherworld—that little girl’s face.
Roger Armbrust
April 22, 2012
