Remember Johnny Smith

that haunting voice played through a projector

he would sing just one song

and let me play for fun with a grin

Johnny smith wore black glasses and a black shirt

and I watched him play with a filter

there was no flare

and there was often no soul but eclecticism

he was a brother to the other bald man

who jumped and danced with that harmonica

i once saw him do cocaine in the bathroom

when he saw me he only grinned

johnny smith sat alone or sometimes with

dirty dave who once invited me to smoke pot with him in the parking lot

his mouth was a plank fence of knotty pine

he too would sing one song and offer kind words

johnny smith would always shake with two hands

I watched him play jazz through

warm tubes

and this was the sweetest sound of them all