bird on the wing

By DB Cox

you traded

your cabaret card

for somebody’s

idea of paradise

& now --

you’re standing

outside a club on

52^nd street,

the rain, beating

a philly-joe solo

on the brim of

your fedora

can’t even get

your foot

in the front door

of the jazz joint

they named for you –

bird, the man

who could glide over

chorus after chorus

smooth, sure, & fast

as your little sister’s

ass, & never run

out of things to say

bird, “liberator of paris,”

“king of bebop” --

gets another royal

welcome home

so, what now --

the jazz clubs

are being replaced,

one-by-one,

with strip dives

& they’re playing

rock & roll

over at the

paramount --

claiming, bop’s

just an outline

of the past,

a graveyard ghost…

       *   *   *

but you can

come with me --

if you wanna go

to kansas city

a place where you

can play without

a goddam license

& you won’t have to be

charlie parker with strings;

you can be free --

a bird-on-the-wing...

*   *   *   *   *

posted 11/12/04

DB Cox is Blues musician/poet, originally from South Carolina, now resides in Watertown, Massachusetts. He has had writing published on-line in: Verse Libre Quarterly, LauraHird.COM, Zygote In My Coffee, Remark, Underground Voices, Sacramento Poetry Art & Music, and others. His work has appeared in print in: Aesthetica, Circle Magazine, Shadow Poetry, My Favorite Bullet, Mystery Island Magazine and Open Wide Magazine.

He has played guitar since the age of 14. After graduating from high school in 1966, he did a 4 year stint with the U.S. Marines. After his discharge, he moved to Boston, Massachusetts to attend the Berklee School of Music, where he eventually found the blues circuit. He loves writing for the same reason he loves playing the guitar -- a way to communicate how he feels, at a given time, on a given day. donniebegood@comcast.net