Wild World

Forget how many times
you've heard it, forget
the re-makes, karaoke takes
but remember when I say
that tonight, I heard
Cat—Yousef--sing it,
I felt the longing,
the love and loss
inviting me in, through
every string on that
Telecaster, with every
thump of the kick drum,
every dip and rise in
his forlorn gray voice--
my heart vibrating
sympathetic notes,
overtones of my own--
the song a mirror, for
him, me, us—we go
back, look at ourselves
in its reflected light,
the same and not the
same, we see, before
we turn away, as the
last chord fades.