Father Strummed Guitar

A Poetic Fragment

Jess C.
1 min readOct 26, 2022

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Photo by Mustafa Öztürk

She never learned to play herself.

There was a part of her that always yearned
To try, to find the song hidden in those strings —

There was a part of her that thought, perhaps,
If she understood the mechanics
the magic would be gone.

Her father strummed a steel string and sang her
The songs he fell in love to —

Her lullabies were “Blackbird” and “Wonderful Tonight;”
“Daisy Jane” awoke in her a melancholy
That she clung to like a well-loved blanket.

Summer nights were rain-rattled windows,
The metallic drag of her father’s fingers along the frets,
And his smoke-cragged voice,
singing Clapton.

Other poems of mine you might like:

You can find Jess at All Your Crooked Heart.
You can support them via the Medium Tip Jar.

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Jess C.

Jess (they/she) 🏳️‍🌈 Educator/artist/writer/parent. Under-slept and over-caffeinated. Currently showing at Essex Art Center(thru Sept. 15th).