Dawn & Jazz Desire


DAWN & JAZZ DESIRE

                (for those who contemplate the bird and the word)



we woke death

this morning, lady



                Lady Day and day

                day say day say

                the sun's too loud



we heard the warm, lady

the cric-crac of dawn and

heard the unheard

                                                hearable in the Fielder drums

                                                of burning instructions for angel wings



wings, wings, wings, wings

blushing the parchment

                       the drums at the windows in our ears



                drums  --  boom, boom, b-o-o-m

                bebop boom

                slipping under

                do-wah boom

                swinging under

                Jitterbug Waltz boom

                sliding under

                Max Roach boom

                seething under

                boom of  Blue Monk boom



                                                                                gone (like it blew my mind)



straight (and pure) no chaser

gone, gone like a

straightandpurenochaserlove, lady because

it is



a love supreme, a love supreme, a love supreme

                                                                      and still deep



and still lovely

as Stella by Starlight, as Mood Indigo as the straying horn

                                                                                                       horn done gone



and the wailing sax

is, just now is

the M-Boom and Dirty Dozen Brass Band

banded in the long run,

the longlong run/ and quest

for the ornithology that is

no more, is no more or less

than is the bird, the holy hawk

poised in prayer



still

and still his sound



in the ark/ dancing in the dark



and lady,

lady, the day and the bird's here

to stay

          stay in our corner



         day say, day say

         the sun's too loud



        for dying






Jerry W. Ward, Jr.  (poem from the 1980s reformatted on January 11, 2019

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