You would have liked this
I was listening to Bert Jansch
Picking out an opening riff
Beautiful and bell-like
And it made me think of you
My wounded friend
It was not a surprise
To find you with me
The shape of you
Is never far away

You would have loved this music
It would have rolled on you
Like poured oil
For a while
But then it would have drained
Into those corrugations
That life harrowed into your soul

And the simple beauty
Would have become something else
Something external
Something examined
Something measured
And as a consequence
Lost

It would have contributed
To the old
Reverse confidence trick
And leave you grasping for ownership
For evidence of your own
Worth
And creativity

Bert Jansch leaves me yearning too
For the simplicity of acoustic poetry
But like you
It has gone

And I feel your absence
Like the numbness
Of frostbite