Jazz Poems

C.T.’S VARIATION

some springs the mississippi rose up so high

that sound of jazz from back

boarded shanties by railroad tracks

visionary women letting pigeons loose

on unsettled skies

was drowned by the quiet ballad of natural disaster

some springs song was sweeter even so

sudden cracks split in the sky / for only a second

lighting us in a kind of laughter

as we rolled around quilted histories

extended our arms and cries to the rain

that kept us soft together

some springs the mississippi rose up so high

it drowned the sound of singing and escape

church sisters prayed and rinsed

the brown dinge tinting linens

thanked the trees for breeze

and the greenness sticking to the windows

the sound of jazz from back

boarded shanties by railroad tracks

visionary women letting pigeons loose

on unsettled skies

some springs song was sweeter even so

THULANI DAVIS

from Jazz Poems ~ Selected and Edited by Kevin Young