hard bop by reuben jackson
  hard
bop

ask miles,
one of the real)
founding fathers)
cooling out
between sets
at birdland
as new york's
finest approach,

about the
"cultural context"
for the paradiddles
and flams
played upside
his head
that "steamin'"
summer night.

had his veins
not been infused
with that
which he birthed
sometime back,

he might have yelled
a warning
loud enough
for amadou diallo

(and other
deceased,
uncredited sidemen)

to hear before
he, too, bled
onto gotham's
storied turf
like a trumpet passage
on a poorly mixed
recording,

and his life force,
(like the sales of
living jazz musicians)-
went down.

 

reuben jackson
9/17/02 © copyright


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