55


(for Rory Gallagher's birthday)

Did you ever wake up with them bullfrogs on your mind?


       scrape rust off the wings with dad's wire brush
          & light comes through with views of vetch & shoes
            where once there was a Ford                   things get lighter
shift in the wind                           for the first time in years
                         as you traded in the organ
                    for a sunburst strat         sat in the yard
                  where the conservatory was going to be
                      walked past museums  but peered
                              into pawn shop windows
            a connoisseur's hands held behind your back
                 admiring hip-flasks    jewels   &   duff mics
   in the grace of clouds  passing deep inside the glass:
               his had a battered sheen  from sleeping in ditches
                 spillage & smacking  Vox AC 30s
               [& a Dallas Rangemaster treble booster]
                 a '61 Fender improving the environment
               adding several storeys to the building
                 made of misremembered traces
               lost weeks    drunken knocks       blue-black blues
                 a mix of  pegs by Gotoh  &  Sperzel
               disparate pick-ups  picked up on the road
                 rewired tone pots         new liver & nut
               a wrong five-way selector &  warped scratch plate
                 which possibly brings that neck pick-up
                               just too close to the sun  moon  &  stars   [solo]
                   & other lights that pop





Norfolk         March 2nd 2009