The Poor Boy

At the dedication of a statue
in St. Louis, July 29, 2011

Never mind the profligate’s storied priors.
Tax evasion. Federal teenage traffic.
Maybellene and Johnny B. Goode remember
who did the driving.

Dirty heat at Blueberry Hill this morning,
hear the root beer factory’s bang and choogle.
Somewhere Congress struggles to raise the ceiling.
Not in St. Louis.

Let the city councilman sleep til Sunday.
Let the cell phones photograph total strangers
rubbing bronze and ducking the lyric sidewalk,
touching the Gibson.