The Streets of Laredo

One of the first songs

I learned to play

Was

"The Streets of Laredo".

I remember this

With all the other songs in that book

Too.

Now, it is

In my closet

Broken

The cover falling off

Scraped up, written in

Dated all the way back

To three years ago.

"The Streets of Laredo"

Got stuck in my head

During that lesson.

It was the first song

I learned how to

Articulate

Breathe with.

I remember how you taught me -

The G, "low G", the breath mark in between it and the D,

I think,

The breath mark,

The brief pause,

Taught me where to breathe.

And I've breathed there

Ever since -

And then you Googled the lyrics

And I still remember -

"As I walked out in the streets of Laredo" -

"I spied a poor cowboy

Wrapped it white linen" -

"In Laredo one day" -

I remember bits

Snatches of the lyrics

And I played like the lyrics,

And it was catchy,

And I felt satisfied,

And I liked it.

I liked it

In a year where I

Always felt behind

Always hated it.

I liked how the lyrics fit in

With the sound I made.

"The Streets of Laredo",

The first song

I felt.