Neglected

to press on strings, these digits, sore thru pain, let chord and cadence pour oh how could I so long ignore that sound that stirred my spirit and what had helped me hear it? thru all those years of muse mistrust and jousting gists that seemed unjust you sat unvoiced, and gathered dust yet, now, your tongue is finding such beauty midst your binding in dreams, I felt you’ve longed for my soft press, to make you, sweetly, cry hushed, empty hours with but a sigh this heart, so lone and aching … my passions - bloodless, breaking still, life’s a circle, round-and-round too long I walked that barren ground and now, once more, in you I’ve found that silence, strained, defeats me and how your voice completes me oh beg, forgive this daft old man I missed your smooth neck ‘neath my hand and each dear note that you command let’s coax these dulcet hours … where ballads bloom like flowers come, guitar … let ballads bloom. Copyright © Gregory Richard Barden, March 6, 2023