Tricks of the light

What’s the flickering?

It’s the days.

What?

The days of your life.  Hey! Don’t go tryin to catch em.  It’ll only break your heart.

How can I slow them down?

Huh, huh, huh.

If those are my days, how come I’m standing here watching them?

Awareness, man.

Am I dreaming?

We’re all dreamin.

Where were you the night you heard your brother was dead?

Don Avenue.

Out of your head on those purple oms.

That’s right.

Drawing your childish sketches.  Scribbles.

Yes.

Crying.

Drops in the ocean.

We respect you, man.

Tell us about the family.

Who?

Don’t fool with us.

It was the weekend before.

Uh huh.

The ones in the cabin.

Yeah.  Just a dusty old shack.

Where?

South.  Alabama, maybe.  Mississippi.

Uh huh.

Just a family.  Poor.

They shared their table with you.  All they had.

Yeah.

You talked about the Blues.

He was showing me.

Yeah?

They said to play the Blues, you have to have lived them.

Yes, they did.

But you haven’t lived them, have you?

Feels like it sometimes.

How long were you there?

Dunno.  Hours maybe.  Or a day.

And when you came back?

It was no time at all.  A few minutes.  I’d hardly been gone at all.  I was still holding the guitar.

Still playin?

Still playing.

But you might have been there all your life?

Maybe.

Nothing but a flickerin light.  Out in the corner of your eye.

And did you find them, when you went back?  Did you find what you were looking for on 61?

I wasn’t even looking.  It was an accident.  I thought we was going through Jackson.

What did you see?

Just a few shacks by the roadside.  The depot at Greenville or Vicksburg where we changed.

But you didn’t see nobody?

Just the people on the bus, heading down to Baton Rouge.  The driver.  No.  I didn’t see nobody.

Ain’t that somethin?

“We ain’t in no hurry.”

That was the driver.  He said that.  Forty all the way was alright by him.

Didn't you find anythin rollin along the Mississippi?

Found there was a lot I didn’t know.

Well that’s somethin.

Was the flickerin there?  Did you see it?

I can't recall, but I see it now.

Let it pass.

Can’t I even try?

You can try all you want, but you’ll break your own heart.

Can I go back?

Can he go back?

Yeah, I guess he can.