The Magic Guitar

Itinerant, John Wanderer

strums his guitar all day long,

a penny a song, a dime a dance

while Napoleon Socrates prances along

in time to the music.

When they have collected all they need,

John takes Socrates by the lead

and off they ride

to the next town down the line.

And all the while John continues

to sing and play.

One chord changes night to day,

another and Spring become Fall

and still another turns the blue sky gray.

Every so often he frets a special chord,

a secret and awesome chord

that he and he alone knows.

And John, who is neither young nor old

any more than he is really a man

but something beyond our reckoning,

plays the song which will bring

the universe to an end.

Published in  Storyteller, Spring 2011