Jazz Poems

FALL DOWN

in memory of eric dolphy

All men are locked in their cells.

Though we quake

In fist of body

Keys rattle, set us free.

I remember and wonder why?

In fall, in summer; times

Will be no more. Journeys

End.

I remember and wonder why?

In the sacred labor of lung

Spine and groin,

You cease, fly away

To what? To autumn, to

Winter, to brown leaves, to

Wind where no lark sings; yet

Through dominion of air, jaw and fire

I remember!

Eric Dolphy, you swung

A beautiful axe. You lived a clean

Life.

You were young–

You died.

Calvin Hernton 

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