Arnold Lindquist said
I haven’t played a harmonica
for ninety-five years
when he heard
or was told if he could hear
he’d hear
George Lewin of Brooklyn
playing the harmonica he got
in nineteen thirty-eight
when he was thirteen
(significantly younger
than the Swede from Iowa)
it’s still in its
perfect box it’s still
shiny the wood
is like new the
instructions say
you’ll have many years
of satisfaction
made in Germany
George reading e-mail
from his rabbi
George primo uomo
considerably louder
than the harp he plays
when wondering
Are you girls are okay?
offers to serenade
only the ladies
one at a time
with what Junior at the Checkerboard
called Mississippi saxophone
autographed
gave two to Walter
(not Big or Little,
he called himself Middle)
hear how the blue
names accrue
Jim Self comes over
happy hour won’t spill its chardonnay
before he too plays
Oh Susannah
