Orpheus Unplugged	
							
My daddy was a big hair rock star, riff master
Taught me the chords and fingering
To work this Fender Stratocaster

I play all the legendary licks and then some
Stairway to Heaven, Crossroads, Aqualung,
Freebird, Layla, Comfortably Numb

I love my bandmate, Eurydice, 
My Star is Born chanteuse, 
Sexy lady, Olympian lover, heavy metal muse 

Dancing with her backup singers, 
Fentanyl and China White, the needle 
Punctures in her vein resemble cobra bite

Her chariot, the long black hearse,
Leaves the Jackson funeral home
In rural Ithaca NY an hour south of Rome 

I play a tribute concert in Dodger Stadium
With my friends, Hashish on keyboards,
Captain Morgan on the drums

I dream the concert venue Hell
Play for the devil and his wife
To reanimate Eurydice, bring her back to life

I raise the rafters with my song
They love the requiem music so, they call
My darling to the stage, promise me that she can go

They give me this warning like the sticker 
On the Cadillac, message from my fellow Deadheads,
Don't look back, you can never look back 

She has just to follow me 
Up the good-intentions path, I must keep my eyes 
Averted to avoid the devil's wrath

But as I approach the surface something's missing 
From our song, I turn around 
To sing her home but she's already gone

My loyal fans, the Maenads, watching on TV,
Now want me dead, they'll have my head,
This is the end of me

My body is dismembered, cast into the sea  
A nymph wandering on Miami Beach
Finds my bloody head, just like the prophesy

My guitar's a constellation set into the sky
Look up and you can hear me play, my head still singing 
In the window of the Bronx Hard Rock Cafe



		(First published in Carmina Magazine - 2025)