Notes About The Poem

Tokyo Jazz Club

Tokyo Jazz Club
You played a solo on the bandstand but didn’t dig the sound your tenor was searching for/ something new, a note big enough to blow the whole town down/  
Between sets, you caught a laugh rising from the bar/
a woman’s laugh, curling like smoke through blue light, full-bodied, bright, sweet with danger/  
You heard Giant Steps inside it, each burst of joy a door swinging open/
 You stole no melody—only the freedom of it/ transposing her wild laughter into a sound unheard/
 raw and pure, free jazz for sure, a midnight breeze running loose through New York streets/  
Now your music was hip to the score, a fusion of brass and laughter, a solo shaped for her alone/
 At the end of the night, my horn held her close/ 
or was it you beneath those stars, where Jelly Roll Morton rolled through carnival lights glowing like flowers in the dark?
Copyright © | Year Posted 2026

Poem

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