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soul drifter
Senior Member
since 2004-09-08
Posts 711
Colorado

0 posted 2005-08-09 11:34 PM


Sidney Bechet in 1944

I was wading in the river
crawdads at my feet
I was wailing down by the river
the sounds curling down the street
down where the whores smile like piano keys

And I feel just like
Sidney Bechet in 1944
after everyone he knew
gone and lost themselves to the war

New Orleans morning
just let me go out in style
if you please,
just let me play a little while...

Cry with me, Jellyroll
the world has forgotten our dreams
just let that piano roll
and ignore this subtle tearing at the seams
so it seems
we're left for dead
bleeding in a hotel bed
with nothing but our scratchy records
to remember our all we've seen and heard

So this is how I feel today
useless and drunk on life
bourbon blues tainting the notes I play
and my eyes aching for my long lost wife

Cry for me, Satchmo
the world has forgotten my song
just let that trumpet blow
and remind them all how it feels wrong
to stay here long
without a clue of real soul
as big as the buttermilk moon is full
I've got nothing but a ghost of a horn
to play in the wind that blew when jazz was born

Oh, south Louisiana
cradle me, dark-eyed Anna
down where the cyprus turn blue
in the neon on that dusty avenue
where the blues took form
this suit of clothes has worn me
through the Great Depression
the dark impression
of a gunshot and a whiskey in the bunk
of a ship that's sailed and sunk
in the Hudson Bay
up New York way
confetti stabbing my spirit
hanging out of windows on the street
stepping on my fingerprints
in the dried cement
without a care
without a care

And I feel just like
Sidney Bechet in Paris town
a gun in my shaking hand
my eyes sad like a sideshow clown

Wild-eyed for the nightlife
to let me down again
searching for my long-gone wife
with the Eiffel Tower stabbing my veins
the blood and insanity travels my brain
I'm crumbling, slightly insane
and I'm caught in the spotlight
but I'm playing Buddy Bolden tonight
so just watch out, now
Emanuelle, look out for me
somehow

Won't somebody please
look out for me
somehow
someway...

"Poets are all who love, who feel great truths, and tell them; and the truth of truths is love." --Philip James Bailey

© Copyright 2005 Zach Hilgefort - All Rights Reserved
Midnitesun
Deputy Moderator 1 Tour
Member Empyrean
since 2001-05-18
Posts 28647
Gaia
1 posted 2005-08-09 11:45 PM


WHOOOHOO but this is one to keep!
and I'd betcha...for sure, that ms serenity will be along shortly to read this

"I've got nothing but a ghost of a horn
to play in the wind that blew when jazz was born"

man, you are playin a very fine tune here!

Greeneyes
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Member Rara Avis
since 2000-09-09
Posts 9903
In Your Poetic Mind
2 posted 2005-08-10 10:18 AM


agreeing with Kacy....another, finely tuned...I indeed hear the music to this...

In your light I learn how to love
In your beauty how to make poems
You dance inside my chest where
no one sees you and that sight becomes this art

JamesMichael
Member Empyrean
since 1999-11-16
Posts 33336
Kapolei, Hawaii, USA
3 posted 2005-08-10 07:32 PM


A silky treat...thanks...James
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