
Jazz Poems
CHARLES PARKER: ALMOST LIKE BEING IN LOVE
These are the shadows of water when water
is thick and no longer transparent
They are everywhere–on the walls
across the ceiling.
It was always this good.
One night you undressed me in your sleep.
Very slowly, you told me later. You said I smelled good.
The sweater i said I’d taken it
out of the drawer where I kept
my winter clothes.
It smelled of pine and a long summer.
No, you said. Not wood.
More like the inside of a saxophone case,
all velvet and sweet regrets.
All blues, I said. Blues
and whatever shadows are made of,
I said, falling on you like slow water.
DIONISIO D. MARTINEZfrom Jazz Poems ~ Selected and Edited by Kevin Young
More Posts: book,classic,collectible,history,jazz,library,poet