Alley Violinist by Robert Lax
This one is from Garrison Keillor’s Good Poems, a great collection!
Alley Violinist
By Robert Lax
if you were an alley violinist
and they threw you money
from three windows
and the first note contained
a nickel and said:
when you play, we dance and
sing, signed
a very poor family
and the second one contained
a dime and said:
i like your playing very much,
signed
a sick old lady
and the last one contained
a dollar and said:
beat it,
would you:
stand there and play?
beat it?
walk away playing your fiddle
