Funk in early morning
Who does this one
I’m trying to remember

I know this title
I try to recall till it comes through
in one verse that says
“Skin It Back”

On-air personality breaks in
Says it’s by Little Feat
Says it’s from 1974

I was fourteen in 1974
Never heard this then
Didn’t hear of this band till
1979 or maybe five years later

I’d lost my virginity and
my swagger had grown
till bushes stopped growing past me
and trees didn’t bloom without me in spring
Skin it back says that song

Fifty-one years later it sounds just like
it did back then
except or maybe because
I’m much older and I know every song
between now and then
except or maybe because
now it sounds like a different band
I notice colors in it I never knew before
It sounds like five other bands

I think of songs I never thought of before
I pause a long time trying to name them
but I can’t

I surrender

Time has a way of pushing you
into giving up
while you wait for something to take place
It never does
You get old enough to stop waiting for it

Skin it back
Skin it back
I tell it to you
from deep inside an acquired peace
a kindly grace fog
Sinking into it
with something like pleasure

No one will remember this day
when I failed
and accepted failure
No one
Not even me
Skin it back
Tell it to you
Skin it back

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`
onward,
T