The Final Bar

Left hand wraps the neck of my Larrivee
and I press four fingers into a G-major shape.
I like the fuller sound of my pinky on the high E,
ring finger on the B, both third fret.
G, C9, D, the I-IV-V progression.
Then E-A-B. All nice big cowboy chords,
twelve bars, like the progression
from January to December.
It’s always like that…the years,
the mindless strumming through life.
This past one was good to great,
with its share of sad, so I turn the chords
into 7ths and play it all as a slow Blues.
E7-E7-E7-E7/A7-A7-E7-E7/B7-B7-E7-B7
Repeat, repeat, repeat.
This gets pretty boring, the passage
of chords, of days, of months,
unless I throw in some solo runs.
I sometimes show off
(for myself, up in my Lair).
You know, just to be free of Life’s structure.
But this thing has to end.
I can hear my critics downstairs,
so, as I come back ’round to Bar 11,
I go grab my I Chord, the E,
and let it ring nice and long,
closing my eyes to remember it
until my next time.
They have a word for finishing up
on that tonic chord. We resolve back to it.
Just like in that last bar of a year,
a life, we end things with resolution.
Shhh… it’s still ringing.

– Joseph Hesch

© 2015, poem, Joseph Hesch, All rights reserved