shades of ray

              --- For Ray Charles

By DB Cox

dark shades of ray

swaying to

fatback funk

& blue indigo

incognito,

comping dirges so slow,

the drummer’s lost

& looking for a tempo --

sweet gospel

heal your soul

throw your crutches

away -– lean on ray

say amen somebody…

river of fingers

leafing through

keys looking for a lost

note – the flatted fifth

of the apocalypse…

i think

i heard it today

just about the time

ray's unbound soul

quit this

bone cold world

on angel wings

of thunder

a world without ray –

who wants it?

i’m gonna paint

my windows black

as foster-grants

& go to bed forever

*   *   *   *   *

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