JAZZ POET
Hearing Chip Templeton
from an album playing
on ivories
Mir Bist du Schoen,
Georgia on his Mind,
and Snowing Morning Blues
in my small flat
I was gently scolded
by neighbors who called up
my German ex landlord
who fought
with the Lincoln Brigade
and on a stretcher in Spain
once saw
La Passionara,
Karl, who always came
with first aid to me
and sat up with me
to hear Bist again
and then Tommy Flanagan
playing “A Motherless Child”
which was how we always felt
in exile from everywhere
then he put on
from his record player
songs from the Jazz Poet
with Tommy Flanagan
while we ate Mandelbrodt
from the poor woman
next door
reading the Yiddish paper
“Freiheit”
living next door
who never forgot us
or fascism as well.