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Jazz Man

By:Andrew Chamberlain
Fall: 2007

The Jazz Man creaks to the corner
On a storm of years slipping by.
<Step, wheeze, clank, step, wheeze, clank, clank, step, wheeze, clank>
His bones feel age, skin breathes old & wide,
Twice the age of his birth certificate.
Pavement scratched while the office commutes to work <thunk>,
Settling down to the groove <shuffle, shuffle> to his youth.
It is opened & emptied & closed as a trunk.

Old silk top hat, full of years and wear, but not bills,
Once bourgeoisie, now a bohemian magnet used to capture coins,
He lifts his dented trumpet <clank, wisp>.
Dulled rust tarnishes since the nights of smooth night club thrills
Merely memories of a man who holds them, a wisp in time
He begins his song <blat, whine, hiss>

Pounding eardrums of passersby from all their blood.
Lips don’t have the grace of the young man
Who could pleasure women and flood
Ears at the Same Time.  Swollen
Knuckles tell of a vicious
Battle, lost because arthritis only enjoys classical,
He drops Gabriel’s weapon to belt a soul choir.
The words to genetic gospel

 Flutter inside his head, staying there, refusing exit
All the wheeze can produce is
<Crackle, gasp, crack, whine, cough, spit>.
Confusion rests on the Jazz Man’s presence
Leaving him too weary for movement
People pass by, failing to see the Jazz left the Jazz Man <exit, Stage Left>.

A young boy, skin shaded socially affluent,
Runs up to him, asking for a song.
Save the single salt river, the Jazz Man’s granite lacks movement
The Middle-Class Boy who reeks of proper upbringing
Asks <Why, question mark>
Answered by a puff of dust from the Jazz Man’s mouth
The Middle-Class Boy says, on a lark
<Hope, I’ll play with you, wanting, proud>.

Stone melts and the river runs dry,
Leaving the flesh of a young man in its stead.
Glittering Ram’s Horn is raised to the sky
A mouth is opened, then
<Song, note, lyric, rhythm, style>
The mess is empty for all passersby

Save for the Middle Class Boy who gave the Jazz Man back his Jazz
<Hush, listen, do-wop, scat, jazz>