Jazz

i really want to thank everyone who responded to the note. be it good or bad, i'd love to know your opinion. that could mean writing back, telling me in the hall, or simply discussing it (or anything), with someone else. i suppose this is a forum for thought and feeling, and if something moves you, please do let everyone know. communication is becoming more essential in a world growing so small, and i feel that finding a place where your opinion counts is life-giving.

that said, i'm going to put some of my older poetry up here, as i'm too tired to attempt something original. enjoy or don't, but please no apathy. not-caring brings the world awful consequence, and i won't tolerate that.

prideful wedding bells
ring the smooth slow soppy-talk
of a '40s late-night dive
all escalator-notes
rising up like the collars
on a too-tall dizzy mix
of gangly interlopers
braying on a saxophone
& a trumpet
foxtrotting along piano keys
cutting the cords of a stringed bass
patting the drums
like the heads of naughty
two-year-old toddlers
sometimes i wish i was etta james
and i could suck my soul
into a song
run around the insides of notes
and come round the mountain
steaming to the end
wailing the brilliant
sunlight soul of jazz
just eating the Aflat
like a piece of rare beef
snapping off celery stick C's
dipping them in bleu cheese E's
coming round all the way
for a chocolate Bflat
just the smoothest little chord
under a hazy cool-whip high-hat
couldn't ask for anything more
play on you chefs of I-IV-V7
your kitchen is my soul

(a little side note on this one. i wrote it in merchants. many of you work there, or have been there, and know how loud it can be. but i was there one night, and it got quiet, and all i heard was a saucy jazz minx crooning her coffee-and-cream truth, and my head spun. she ignited the air, and made that fire easy to breathe. my ears combusted and i was back on solid ground. i tried to write that. and etta james being one of the only jazz singers i know, her name came to mind easy. i also had an especially good guinness that night, from an especially charming waitress, which probably put me in the right rhythm for that kind of language devolution.)