DEAR DIARY: DAY 94

I’ve been picking away at my guitar, making recognizable noise and I’ve been singing. The singing is slow and weak but I get to say words out loud and there is a story there if I make it thru the last verse. I go long stretches without making a sound and like anything else that you want to manage; use it or lose it. After several repetitions of the song I dial up the volume and reach for a little timbre. 

My song book has been pared down to about 8 or 10 songs that sound good no matter the source. I can read them as poetry and they sound great without the melody. The song I do most, do best is “Wonderful World”. The line I like to vocalize goes, “I hear babies cry and I watch them grow, they’ll learn much more than I’ll ever know.” Then I move on to “Saint James Infirmary Blues”. The louder the better. Seems grimly appropriate during our coronavirus ordeal. A couple of rounds and I thumb ahead to “Summertime, and the living is easy.” I do both St. James & Summertime in the key of Am. I like the Dm chord and it drops in at just the right time in both songs. 

Before I finish, I do a couple of rounds of “Over The Rainbow.” In Wizard of Oz, Dorothy just wanted to get back to Kansas. “Birds fly, over the rainbow, why then oh why can’t I?” I’m not enthralled with Kansas but I identify with being trapped in a strange, other world. I will have sung enough, worked both hands on the guitar and move on to something else but often come back for an encore.

It feels like everyone in my realm has moved on, as if the virus has given us a reprieve but we all know better. It may not kill you but then almost dead with scarred lungs isn't how I want to spend the rest of my 80's. Day 94 and who knows, maybe another 400 days before we get good news. People have to go to work and some would rather risk infection than change their behavior. Politics and public outcry against police brutality compete for front page headlines. Still, I’m too old to be taking chances; so if I don't have to go out it's stay home, wash my hands, wear a mask and keep distance from people.