antecedent meme-like ghosts ! .. .

A TRIBUTE TO ROBERT JOHNSON

do not stand too long at your delta crossroads
or gaze beyond that vast insomnimaniacal river
where auburn sun still lies dying in the dirt
cursed day that black sea and schooners met

I lose my will alone against dark stained atavism
splintered oar, bilge rats lest friends they identify
when chained to pleasant memories of your youth
those soon sunken, metalled anchors to the deep

empathy and emotion rushes flint to flint
rancid as the feed those learned best to starve
upon thy taunted frame your slave name carved
branded like a demon laid out on gantry stove

navvies all hibernian were brought to order
dug severed holes priceless by each wrecked mile
they earned respect among their heathen sect
their past a mirrored story of famine and regret

cities’ streets walled echo other thunder
histories and time may never meet
they hide incumbent of these many ghettos
where peoples flocked together feel complete

once settled in lands of quarantined disorder
dreams occupied become saltless tears none cried
white-rimmed clouds, black bellied, dispell at journeys end
bring ghosts to heal ensconced of sunnied vistas

such warmth delivered of your musical candour
honesty spites your buried, sonic treasure
what each ancestral order survives finally competes
with every tattooed morcel earth family completes

©edenbray17.07.2023