ROBBIE ROBERTSON

Movie night, Clark University,
Sometime in the 80’s.
An auditorium filled with enough weed smoke
You didn’t need to bother lighting up your own.
Van Morrison, Joni Mitchell, Eric Clapton,
The Staples, Dr. John and Ronnie “the Hawk” Hawkins
And many others
Playing as if exorcism was still a viable option.
It was film but didn’t feel that way.
I was a neophyte,
And it crept up on me unexpectedly and shook me,
More than I knew.
A thru line to my brother,
A live wire connecting family and friends
Such that the world was no longer made up of parts,
But just one feeling.
Further on up the road,
Eric Clapton and Robbie Robertson trading licks,
Like kids flipping baseball cards,
Not to see who’s better,
But to compete because it was fun.
Nobody could have brought together
All those people in just that way,
Faith in the magic of gathering,
And allowing the music to do everything else.