(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