Dennis Mahagin

How To Make It w/ a ‘62 Reissue Japanese Fretless Jazz Bass

Plug her in

easy, easy, yet

with deliberate

reverence, there’s a click halfway

between shove

and pluck, just above a patch

of hum, and the stick… to love  

her you must play

some natural now lick the tip

of your paisley diamond

hard McCartney

plectrum,

then whip it

away.

Keep the EQ

flat, but push volume

between nine or

ten; don’t think about

the Mongoloid prodigy

banjo boy from

Deliverance,

his ghoulish sockets,

hootenanny

whites under iris, shameful

dungarees cum

doom,

and neither go near

the line

from Don Henley’s

Sunset Grille, your talent

isn’t there, and maybe

never, yet still

possessed

of enough heart

for foreplay, vibrato

and the effort

that kills…

hammer on, tremolo,

trill… pull off

a thing between the tongue

and teeth, the ninth

and thirteenth

phantom frets, so little

time left, as your wind

moans the lip

of a bottle, oh Yanni,

get you some, only the first 

sweet good note in years,

a couple more measures

and she’s begging for it,

under a firm growl

and meanness, the keening

between howls…

don’t think about poor Jaco

Pastorius, mad virtuoso

beaten down bloodied unto

death in a south Florida

alley,

but all the keys

you want to play in

still… and maybe

a touch

out of reach, but you will

go up

the neck as she makes

the sound to break hearts

of unreasonable men, art hangs

via balance, you tell the self

Kamasutra legato funk

in the moment

that never was

you, splitting

into two, the billionth harmonic

of every killing effort, multiple

upon multiple upon  

multiple, turn her

down some

son, -- trap

breath within

the slippery damping

and the mute, light years

now, the stunned

meteors will mouth

your prowess, echoes

sustain through

the coming

tears.

Dennis Mahagin is a poet and musician from the Pacific Northwest. He is the author, most recently, of the poetry collection, "Longshot & Ghazal" from Mojave River Press-- which will be available on Kindle, Nook, et al., by summer's end. Dennis is also poetry editor for the online magazine, FRiGG.