like my Pop-Pop.

It was his Peerless chain link cuffs,

or some like his,

that wrestled order out

of the chaos of the hazy Appalachians.

Just or not, what matters is

he slipped a twenty into the hand of the lost soul

and smiled. He spoke too, words:

some muttered, some kind and some

rich and opaque as coffee.

If you had watched him

humming throatily as he reasoned,

you would understand honesty and power

and whiskey and justice and

me.

Based on “Study The Masters” by Lucille Clifton