I Don't Sing the Blues

I don’t sing the blues or play tin slide guitar

I don’t protest in the street or write letters to the editor

I don’t wish on stars or dance

I don’t seek pleasure in blaming others

I do it as a matter of course

I’m as small a man who ever lived

But I don’t sing the blues

Or play harmonica

I don’t use tinctures, herbal remedies

See the doctor or dentist

I am not patient or very forgiving

I don’t like to say I’m sorry because I prefer to tell the truth

I don’t lie on grassy bone piles or pray

Or seek my forefathers’ approval

I don’t relish the ordinary 

Or let it occupy my thoughts for long

I don’t sing the blues

But you’ll often find me in the front row as the old one play

Because I love to see others sing through their anguish

I’ll tap my foot and smile with true admiration

Its such an aching party show

The pain

The pain

Listen to the songs of the lifetimes of pain

How melodic and beautiful

But for me

I prefer to just keep living it

Keeping my blues to myself

In alcoholic insensitive meadows