The Deep Purple Smoke Over Lake Gen

The Deep Purple Smoke Over Lake Geneva

Soul-torn and stripped
to bare recklessness
obliterated in a riff:
the guitar pronounces blame
in all the same notes
repeating, repeating,
"Who remembers Montreux
and the deep purple smoke
over Lake Geneva?"

It's all gone - long hallways
and mountain echo
fading in Blackmore's haze:
the malaise of mediocrity
and the names reclaimed,
hung high on walls,
padded, patted, then forgotten
like the deep purple smoke
over Lake Geneva.