Jazz Fan Looks Back

    I crisscrossed with Monk

    Wailed with Bud

    Counted every star with Stitt

    Sang "Don't Blame Me" with Sarah

    Wore a flower like Billie

    Screamed in the range of Dinah

    & scatted "How High the Moon" with Ella Fitzgerald

    as she blew roof off the Shrine Auditorium

    Jazz at the Philharmonic

    I cut my hair into a permanent tam

    Made my feet rebellious metronomes

    Embedded record needles in paint on paper

    Talked bopology talk

    Laughed in high-pitched saxophone phrases

    Became keeper of every Bird riff

    every Lester lick

    as Hawk melodicized my ear of infatuated tongues

    & Blakey drummed militant messages in

    soul of my applauding teeth

    & Ray hit bass notes to the last love seat in my bones

    I moved in triple time with Max

    Grooved high with Diz

    Perdidoed with Pettiford

    Flew home with Hamp

    Shuffled in Dexter's Deck

    Squatty-rooed with Peterson

    Dreamed a "52nd Street Theme" with Fats

    & scatted "Lady Be Good" with Ella Fitzgerald

    as she blew roof off the Shrine Auditorium

    Jazz at the Philharmonic