I sold my brother's coin collection for a fix/
Police and thieves/
Coke n smack, synth riffs and puffs
Jack McDuff, Sure ’Nuff ’n funk for you/
My life is on freeze, please don't tease
Pop the beat, heroin junkies down the street
Hookers trickin' where we used to meet/
Jazz horn and the abstract truth
The cross is afraid of women's rights/
Stay on the fight, the truth is right
Lo-fi delights while eating shrooms/
Mojave Desert eagle walk
While wearing peyote buttons round my neck
As we talked, a raven's feather flew in her hair
She was high on acid and said
I looked like a shaman dancing with a bear/
From Hip-Hop to bop, we ride the jazz tide, swing till you drop/underground Monk playin' some funk/Max Roach coaching the field, drums in the playbook/ Brother Jack McDuff runnin' for a touch down in the open filed/Superman and Jimmy Smith, the dynamic duo’s look flyin' high/Abstract truths on the wall, Warhol’s silver glow/Basquiat’s brush storms the gallery floor/Miles, out of the kool, breakin’ every rule/a trumpet thunderbolt/ stereo vinyl playin'/ Sonny Rollins vibes in the club, cookin’ up fresh notes/church bells ring in his horn/ Man, a river of quotes/The Jazz Messengers mark the milestones in the mist/Miles all the way live, his Sketches of Spain we can’t resist/ HiFi prayers/ Jazz time/ Peace and love for all mankind/Blue Mitchell in the barroom a mural on the wall/Man, it’s all right, baby, hear the crowd ignite/Wynton Kelly’s trio is out of sight like way gone/From street corners to jazz low down rooms, the groove is our creed/a lineage of legends planted in every reed/Spoken in breath, in rhyme, in rhythm’s Sly Stones art/a saga of swing that lives on, heart to jaged heart/ The soulful vibes keeps use alive
take a bite out of crime
this phrase came to me as an original thought
but then I looked the phrase up
and saw McDuff the crime dog from the sixties
my growing up years
that is where the phrase came from
I had forgotten all about it
until a few minutes ago
when I thought for a couple of seconds
it was my own idea
silly me
I still think it’s a good goal to aim for
I hope we can
take a bite out of crime
it seems worse than ever these days
She was short-spoken, curt, and abrupt.
Her tight ears were closed, her mouth was cupped.
Not unlike her dad, ole mean McDuff.
She told it like it was, spoke her mind.
More honest girl you would never find.
I’d want her to back me in a bind.
She speaks the brutal truth, you see.
Even if it angers Ted and me.
A solid case of integrity.
She will probably be a lawyer or judge.
Speaking the truth, she will never fudge.
Curt and abrupt, my cousin Smudge.
We’re here to remember you, Tony McDuff
Though most of us here knew you better as ‘Puff’
You’d take any challenge, no matter how rough
Alas your last struggle was simply too tough
That trusty old Harley you’d ride like the wind
Twas rumoured you’d nicked it from someone you skinned
A crime which upon you could never be pinned
Which upset the cops for you frequently sinned
But though you were rough and was frequently bad
And often described as a bit of a lad
All of us here will be equally sad
As you go to wreak havoc... in hell... with your dad
Two slugs removed by unscrupulous vets
They did what they could but they weren’t taking bets
But your lifetime of wounds without any regrets
Was finally lost to those damned cigarettes
For nobody knew as your voice became gruff
That it wasn’t the weed or the powdery stuff
See you real soon if we’re good-bad enough
So off you go Tony, off you go ‘Puff’
24 June 2019
For Funeral Service contest
Sponsored by Team Poetrysoup
No attempt at presumption... no prize required.
To Ben McDuff poor Mary would cling
When Ben McDuff did his Highland Fling
But so fast did he fling than she came unclung
And over the Highlands she was flung
At the computer sits Dickie McDuff
Searching a password that isn't too tough
With a cocky demeanor
He types in 'mywiener'
And the computer says "Not long enough!"
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