Love Poem: Minnesota Meets the Bronx
Frances Lemoine Avatar
Written by: Frances Lemoine

Minnesota Meets the Bronx

> holy godless troubadour 
> 
> saint of beauty's truth 
> 
> cigarettes and shades 
> 
> acoustic electric real 
> 
> all despite himself 
> 
> wisps words notes for us 
> 
> tries hard to set us straight so 
> 
> he can find the keys 
> 
> slim poet shaded 
> 
> behind the lenses a world 
> 
> where what is is all 
> 
> history's losers 
> 
> found light hope space or justice 
> 
> in dashed-off lyrics 
> 
> lonesome deaths or worse 
> 
> songs sung and shhh shhh listen 
> 
> all whispered demands 
> 
> reluctant poet 
> 
> his mysterious women 
> 
> blueprints for Bronx girls 
> 
> curly hair blue eyes 
> 
> sliced into green eyes straight hair 
> 
> across vinyl years 
> 
> forever aged 
> 
> his young blood blonde on the tracks 
> 
> dispense theft and love 
> 
> his words notes guitar 
> 
> venomous antidotes cured 
> 
> some isolation 
> 
> slim medicine man 
> 
> without advice or consent 
> 
> his unknowing salve 
> 
> highways horses war 
> 
> spaces between the words tell 
> 
> nothing everything 
> 
> museless save for him 
> 
> behind dark shades and guitars 
> 
> kids pretend to know 
> 
> songs of souls' desires 
> 
> innocent criminal finds 
> 
> you me and himself? 
> 
> pissed off cranky faced 
> 
> chubby baby cheeks tell of 
> 
> loss more loss and hope? 
> 
> slim still no wiser 
> 
> wise enough for forty years 
> 
> screw the weatherman