Love With Strings Attached Poem by Harry J. Couchon Jr

My first love wasn't flesh and blood
She was wood metal and plastic
With curves that drove men wild
My Gibson SG the best guitar I ever owned

Running my fingers up and down her neck
Applying pressure in all the right places
While stroking her firmly with my other hand
Coaxing from her a scream of sheer pleasure

No tremelo bar vibrato by hand
Playing her was almost as good as sex
And when we were done she didn't ask Do you love me

But I did love her
Holding her I was a rock star
Playing before thousands of screaming fans
Not really just some of the neighborhood girls

A teenager playing guitar in a basement band
One of maybe five or six on the block
Playing just as much to impress the girls
Than as for the love of the music

Saturday afternoon grab my guitar
Meet the rest of the band in the drummers basement
We kept our equipment there
Except for the small amp I had at home for practice

The music would flow out into the street
Through the open basement windows
One by one the neighborhood girls would come by
Practicing flirting with the band members

That's how I met her
The girl who would bear my children
Her curves drove me wild
And my SG couldn't compete

We fooled around she got pregnant
Doing the right thing I married her
Our daughter was the most beautiful baby ever born
Here I was a teen-aged husband and father

When money started getting tight
We sold things we felt we didn't need
Until we ran out of such items
And there was only one thing left

I took the SG to a local guitar store
They offered me a fair price
I accepted it
Back home I cried for losing my first love
And my infant daughter cried along with me

2005