Tune Therapy

image borrowed from bing

Tune Therapy

“The 60’s are gone, dope will never be as cheap, 

sex never as free, and the rock & roll never as great.”

---Abbie Hoffman

Back in my woebegone wage-slave days,

during my 30 minute commute to the office

each & every weekday morning,

to avoid the tremendous tedium,

to cheer myself up,

to dig the moment inhabited,

to put forward some positive vibes,

always listening to one FM Classic Rock station,

I would play a little game along the way,

always the Pollyanna at the start;

knowing that rock songs are 3 minutes in length,

knowing that I had 8 to 10 chances,

knowing that the damned odds were long,

knowing that my success would be minimal,

I created two Rock Group categories;

“Best of the Best I” and

“Best of the Best II”.

In the first group I included five

of my favorite R&R artists,

needing to hear one of their songs;

Beatles

Rolling Stones

Doors

Queen

Elton John. 

In the second group I included

my next five favorite R&R artists,

and would accept songs from,

Crosby, Stills, & Nash

Joni Mitchell

Heart

ZZ Top

Pink Floyd.

I would always get more excited

if I could hear a song from Group I,

but, of course, would still

love it if I heard any tune

from an artist in Group II, but

this game was complex.

I decided that if I could hear just one song

from either group, my whole day

would be ringed with rainbows;

on a fabulous day I would actually hear

up to 4 artists from both lists during

the half-hour commute,

but on a gray day, I would hear

none of them, and that day

would be dullard & flat-assed.

It was my will against the odds,

with my heart vulnerable to

the whims of cruel chance.

Sometimes I would go a whole week

without scoring a win, but hey,

sometimes I would be fat-flushed

with luscious luck, and my songs

would appear in cheerful clumps

day after day, a shining week.

This silly superstitious routine

was practiced for several years

and I never tired of it.

Sometimes, yes, I do miss the game, but

not the terrible traffic,

not the woeful worries,

not the fatuous fatigue,

not the belligerent bosses,

not the writhing work day. 

Glenn Buttkus

July 2013

Posted over on dVerse Poets FFA

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