Jazz Poems

FOUR BONGOS: TAKE A TRAIN

for Vinnie

The drummer wears suspenders to look like 

an old-timer, and plays a salsa

“Caravan,” bad boy from the panyard with 

an evil, evil beat. The conga man 

chants Yoruba and shakes his sweat loose on 

a girl up front. His hand worries the drum 

like a live fish thrashing. Call the bassist 

“Pops,” with his grizzly goatee, his Banshee 

yelp, his rhumba step. Tha hall is fluorescent.

“Take a Train,” Lawrence Welk called that tune, 

and played. Ellington, hovers above this group 

like changeable weather, in gabardine.

ELIZABETH ALEXANDER | 1962

from Jazz Poems ~ Selected and Edited by Kevin Young

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