Day 26 - 30 poems in 30 Days

Music Brings Me Home

Here is the music where I belong

grandfathers and aunts strum
an old-time song,
hands clap time,
laughter rolls up amid the crowd,
leather-soled shoes upon the floor,
familiar tunes, some quiet, some loud.

Now Dave and Geri bow down an old modal tune

that wrings my heart calls forth
Grandma’s laughter beneath the moon,
Papaw’s fiddle on the shelf,
family food, sweet and warm
honeyed tea and lemonade chillin’
and out-back everyone’s a’playin’.

Then here comes Ginny and Kaye,

syrup throats let loose, like I would pray,
ballads and hymns that framed my youth,
taught me what was right, 
perfect harmony that warns
big dangers everywhere and how
sometimes love can be a gruesome sight.

Oh, I am coming back tonight –

the chords of G, and C, and E
float out across the dome of evening
land in my ear, my lap, my life,
wrap the shawl of music
‘round my shoulders – Hallelujah sisters
This is the music which brings me home.