Painting by RJ Hohimer
Around the Savoy
Breathless for a change
sitting with chops
in the blighted club
suddenly realizing
there is no bread
even in the freezer
back home,
my winter treasure
has been squandered
lost in rain and fog,
still I wish to be here
even for first light
to hear Coltrane
in the club,
stepping outside
on the cold pavement
a few partying patrons
trembling like the trees
in a past landscape
of Corot
sit by me on a bench,
inside Coltrane’s notes
rise over the piano
his sax solo
wounded by a reality
that only a jazz artist
like R.J. Hohimer
might capture
in oils,
I listen on the stoop
by poorly outfitted
pigeons
as a woman in green
having lost out
on a date
contradicts
my usual expectations
stumbles from a cab
and asks me out.