Monday, July 5, 2010
ruby-throated, this
morning’s hummingbird
trembling at the yellow
hibiscus, a cartoon
quarter-note just
played; Coltrane
and Monk at the Five
Spot, 1957, New York’s
Ruby aflame and spinning
past the subway stairs,
Eighth Street, the city’s
dank underground breath
riffling her skirt,
her high heels spiking
the damp pavement, Shadow
Wilson and Wilbur Ware,
heel tap and the taut seams
of her figured stockings,
“My dear,” someone said,
as though in passing, as much
breath and touch as speech
Thursday, July 1, 2010