Hero's: Aretha & Friends

April 14, 2014

Aretha Franklin came out on stage.

looking heavy, garish, wearing a too short mink coat,

not that it mattered when she opened her mouth.

The same for Patti La Belle and Melissa Etheridge and others,

singing from their bones and marrow.

Melissa’s guitar made me ache.

In my next life I’ll be a soul-singer,

Ill play a slide guitar like Bonnie Raitt,

people will laugh and cry when they hear me

or

I’ll be a hermit in the forest living on acorns and honey,

my teeth will ache from the icy water in the stream.

I’ll play a recorder and sleep on pine needles.

I might speak a few words to those who search and find me

but I might not say a word, just look into their eyes.

Before I die I need to make a decision about all this.