life stories in poetry

Robert Johnson didn't sell his soul
to the devil at the crossroads
to learn the guitar real pretty
it was an earlier bluesman
named Tommy Johnson
it was a common name back then
for Mississippi black men
they were no relation
but myth gets twisted
through misappropriation
through history's imagination
a game of telephone
from a time when the telephone
barely existed

and also of course
there's no devil either
and Robert and Tommy both
just worked off their asses
to learn how to make that gitbox sing
there was no dark magic
there is no such thing
no matter how much we'd rather pretend
that some amazing things Just Happen
but that's another story
let's take it
one misunderstanding
at a time