Contributor Series 9: If Men Had Ears
June
By Stan Galloway
The jazz notes you spur
summon Satchmo's cornet
squawk, syncopated yips scatting
over beats—syllables of desire
bending blue-hot pitches and
sliding be-be-bop all around the melody—
improvising every next move
vocalizing thump and groove
to mark the song be-be-bumping
inside dizzy spinning tumble-bumble
full-score-orchestration,
bells and sax—double-backed
double-tonguing, riding the cold train,
catfish jumping deep into Tunisia,
building my dream
on your be-bop-beating kiss.
Stan Galloway's most recent poem to appear here was Gazers, his collaboration with Julie Ellinger Hunt in June 2011. 
Love the "music."
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Thanks, Bobbie. I had fun with the sounds, as well as the words. The early draft was called "Ella" because I based part of it on a clip of her singing. But I thought the more generic title worked better. I'm glad the poem "sings" for you.
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