A poem a day for 2013 - day 116 - Have you seen me

There was a man I remember
From just two years ago
Who used to stand on the corner of Slauson and LaBrea
A shiny black man
In a dark green suit
With gold dye in his badly permed hair
He wore a guitar on his back
And he would stand on the center divider
And sing for money

Then he was on Stocker and Crenshaw
In the same green suit
Just now not as clean
With his black roots showing
And his gold still on top
Playing his guitar for money

More time passed and I kept seeing him
On the bus stop across from Simply Wholesome
Always sitting
In the same green suit
His shine a memory
His gold almost gone

It is only today I remember
I haven't seen him in some time

Is this what happens
We fade away on a bus stop
Under these bright lights
This California sun
Wearing the one suit we own
Singing the song we have left

I never listened to his song
I always had somewhere to go
I didn't offer a dime
A dollar
A coat
I didn't ask where he was from
Did you

But I remember him there
And I wonder where
He is singing his song tonight