PLAYED JAZZ VIOLIN LIKE AN OUT OF TOWN JUNKIE
By Linda Lerner
He played down to nerve
twisting himself in sound;
played from his gut; dead screams
rumbling underground
speared into trees;
he played to free himself,
played with the soul of his mind
of his flesh,
in the sweltering night
licking ice cream crowd
he played like he had no time left
like a junkie, using his bow like his sex;
The Man supplying his own fix.
Arching, hips foward
desire without object
he curved high around each note;
hitting bottom
played like he had no skin;
like no cool New Yorker ever would.
JAMMING WITH THE ANGELS--TOWN HALL & ELSEWHERE
(5/19/94)
By Linda Lerner
For Andrew
A four day beat revival
of your own to mark 50
your day
happening
to be theirs
took us
to Town Hall/wake-
ning of Jacks spirit
in shirt & tie worn pals
squeezing into old jive sounds
in you burst
thru twenty year restraints/
ordering of days...
always had an edge, though,
never quite fit
suit you wore
ripped off at last, as
Allen once might have done.
With a swinging chick
you stumbled on in me
one night,
blasted on jazz on wine on sex
mostly
high on you
hit a road
sweved off in reckless youth;
four days warned anyone whod listen
of a second coming.
(not bad for a mortal)
candle lit you blew
all the Pall Mall burnt
stale air you could cough up
blew half century
rebellion
into
orbit.