Please accept our gunshot kissing sounds
and have mercy on our lack of traditional strings.
See! Look there!
Our cocker spaniel who was lost
the year the apple tree died of a fungus,
he’s playing a cigarbox ukulele clawhammer style
and he’s not bad.…
I gargle my prayers aloud from center stage
to the tune of William Tell’s overture.
What I really mean to say is
Lord
please
please
stop
it’s all I can take
even the anvil player sitting next to the muted trombone
is known to have
mercy
softer than yours.