Levitating

I bet you’ll die with a smile. I wish I could see it.

But I know I’ll die first because, seeing what you’ve been through your whole life, you must be immortal and indestructible.

Your guitar is an instrument that connects your brain to your heart and soul.

Or is it all the way around?

And you transmit all your feelings with your fingers.

And if you add the correct lyrics. You’ll incite a riot.

And your lyrics and riffs will echo in my bones.

Love gone bad, cheating, mistrust, lies, suffering, double crossings, deception, and abandonment.

We can find all devastating adjectives in your lyrics. And yet we believe you because we know you’re an expert. You have been the cause and the effect of all those feelings.

You’re an authentic, soulful blues man. You borrow alien sentiments and affections.

You instigate young and old minds with messages of rebellion and mutiny.

You twist and wring love and devotion and turn them into evil provocations.

Beautiful music inspired by a black sound that the masses had ignored for decades.

Exporting it back to the blind ears of America. Transformed into ‘devil’s music.’

Your image is a symbol of revolt and anarchy affecting generations.

And for decades, you fooled us because you were a humble and sincere human being.

The man was so gentle that, without a doubt could be called a gentleman.

Like all good brothers, great artists, and great bands whose members had contrasting egos, you fought with your own.

But now, we know it’s all good.

All blues and sad music had to come from misery, anguish, and desolation. But you never suffered; you were always having a great time. So you convinced me I was wrong.

How could you create such music without living a miserable life or going through hell?

You had to scrape the shit right off your shoes with your overloaded acoustics to create a devil full of sympathy.

You were always trouble, it seemed. A Houdini in reverse. Never wanting to disappear.

A consummate monkey reaching for coconuts can also fall from a palm tree and end up like a pirate with a broken skull.

Never a dull moment, indeed.

The End

Lines inspired after watching “Under The Influence.” About the life of Keith Richards.

Edmundo Barraza

Lancaster, Ca. Dec-19-2015

Author: Edmundo Barraza

Edmundo Barraza was born in Durango. He grew up in Torreon, Mexico. He now lives in Los Angeles, Ca. Even though he became an American Citizen in 1990, he still considers Torreon his hometown. He was seven when he saw his first movie. The screen was the exterior wall of a church at the top of a hill. A Spanish film about a baby left outside a church by his mother. He never stopped watching movies after that. He began writing short stories in 2009. His love for cinema pushed him to turn his own stories into scripts and then to film. In 2015 he shot his first short film, "The Corpse Is Alive," which won thirteen nominations at different film festivals worldwide. "Drugs And Chocolates" and "The Psychic" have also won numerous awards. Some of his favorite film directors include Luis Buñuel, Federico Fellini, Akira Kurosawa, Ingmar Bergman, Stanley Kubrick, Sam Peckinpah, Alfonso Cuarón, Alejandro González Iñárritu, and many others. His favorite music includes The Beatles, Stevie Wonder, Pink Floyd, The Clash, Temptations, The Doors, Led Zeppelin, Bob Dylan, and many others. "Playing pool, listening to rock music, and having a beer is great, but reading a book, writing a story, or watching a good film is even better. I hate guns and evil political leaders, racist people too. I love good people. Children are the most precious thing in the world. I aim to shoot a feature film based on one of my stories." Edmundo is married to Consuelo Barraza. They have a daughter and a son, Michelle Solano and Carlos Barraza. View all posts by Edmundo Barraza