I’m thinking the Kinks,
not Van Halen.
Single-tasking,
without question.

Son Volt before Wilco.
Uncle Tupelo before everything,
of course. Ordinary events
happen in extraordinary ways

is not a slogan
to memorize
over coffee
while reading

about Johnny Thunderbolt’s
interrupted window washing
before Johnny Thunders
got smeared in

a Lower East Side alley
during a downpour. Before

that Midwestern singer
taunted him with
Johnny’s gonna die.
In the aftermath,

I’m thinking Thomas Wolfe,
not Tom Wolfe.
And Woolf before any Wolfe—
of course.