That Gibson Guitar

Underneath the swaying hickory tree,

He played his Gibson guitar.

Though his song crumpled in the sweltering

Southern breeze, he continued to strum

His guitar strings with a zealous passion,

Expelling each song lyric outward from the

Disconsolate depths of his mourning heart

In hopes that someone, somewhere would listen.

Within the confines of his cluttered garage,

He played his Gibson guitar.

Though an irritated sister banged violently

On the door, he continued to play unperturbed

As his three bumbling friends danced clumsily

To the crooked melody and his younger

Brother rolled on the grimy floor in uncontrollable

Laughter at the screech of a leaky note.

In the bustling, sullied streets of the city,

He played his Gibson guitar.

Though passers by attempted to avoid eye contact,

Whipping out their sleek smartphones and burying

Their faces in their screens as they hurried past him,

He continued to penetrate their eardrums with his

Dissonant ballads, pausing only to collect pennies

Thrown in sympathy at his worn, weathered feet.

In the Marlboro stench of a crumbling nightclub,

He played his Gibson guitar.

Though some customers, unsettled by the cheap alcohol that flowed

Pugnaciously through their veins, heckled him relentlessly,

His guitar continued to erupt with an unapologetic

Persistence, rattling the stomachs of even the

Sober clients into a nauseous, drunken ailment.

And now, despite the aching calluses ingrained in his fingertips,

The bumps and bruises deriding his cherished instrument, and

The overbearing lights irradiating him from the high steel canopy,

He continues to pour each poignant lyric from within him, just as he

Has always done, Letting each of his fingers dance from

String to string, and every verse arouse into graceful takeoff.

As he reaches the final verse of his final song, he pauses abruptly,

And listens to melodious, emphatic voices

Reciting each lyric and bursting into jubilant applause.

In the limelight of a thousand adoring eyes,

He still plays that Gibson guitar!!!