Fallen Star
for Robert Johnson

he’s been on the street, on crack cocaine
for going on three decades

how can I go there or get there
without having gone through that
through those streets, those feats

without having walked in those shoes
upon his feet

can I possibly write what he can
see as he sees

how can I or whomever decide
who is a better writer, a better poet

and does better have to do with words
upon a page or with event verse unfolds

grip of the pen or upon how we grip life

knowledge of language, its grammar
or the grammar of life

I envy him his alley ways, his dark days,
his fireflies, his falling stars


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2009
8:16 p.m. 04.06.09