BILLIE PIERCE'S JAZZ FUNERAL

By Lee Meitzen Grue

Billie Pierce used to sing to me 

when it was hot, when I couldn't get sleep. 

She sang  Algiers Hoodoo Blues 

and Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out. 

A gold cornet curved around those long hard blues. 

Yesterday, I second-lined her to the St. Louis cemetery 

with a bunch of school children 

holding hands for Billie dead. 

The Olympia Brass Band played 

slow beautiful, 

a bright skinned man 

stiff-armed a derby hat, 

gimp-legged, but moving fine for Billie dead. 

There were people taking pictures, 

as if you could, 

too many cars underfoot, 

and in a long car, Billie dead. 

It was a long way there and sad, 

the music crying and us crying, 

children needing a bathroom bad 

so we went while the music was down. 

I never got to hear them 

bringing it back happy for Billie dead 

so I'm still grieving.

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Source:  French Quarter Poems, Long Measure Press, 1979