Going to visit/
an old family friend,/
eyesight failed me./
I couldn’t find him/
in the crowd./
Then someone told me:
“He is there!/
in that bright red sweater!”
He always wears/
bright red sweaters./
How could I forget that?
Making everything/
about us is how we/
relate to all things.
I need ten people/
to like my car dancing to/
make up for one jerk.
She pauses, listens,/
eyes closed, feels breezes play. That’s/
deeply personal.
God knew
what He was doing
when He called me
to be a messenger
of His and her love.
Old, not forgotten father
got sweet gifts of kosher
home-canned plums in apple juice.
And candy.
He knows she loves him.
But how often can a guy who loves
Ella’s scatting,
the Duke,
the Dizz,
who gets Misty to Sarah Vaughn,
who channels Satchmo,
get to talk to a Mensch
who hung out with them in Philly,
when he was the only white guy in the club
where they played
for the love of that music?
That sound?
To touch the past like that,
to hear those notes
through his vocal telling,
yes,
through that time machine,
I got the greater gift.
Just like He knew I would.
If you don’t want me/
to tell you the Truth, don’t ask./
You can’t handle it.
As in N’ahlens, my/
Gator jazz/blues saxman will/
just live in mem’ry.
OR
Gator saxman plays ‘Misty’/
just in my mem’ry.
Back with a vengeance/
is present tense. You need to/
write to just write, right?
The English major/
in me says: “Since when did you/
need our permission?”