Four, and More
for Miles Davis
1.
a carrier of incandescent dreams this
blade-thin shadowman stabbed by lightning
crystal silhouette
crawling over blues-stained pavements his life
lean he drapes himself his music across edges
his blood held tight within
staccato flights
clean as darkness & bright as lightning
reversed moments where the sound is two cat eyes
penetrating the midnight hours of moon pearls lacing
the broken mirrored waters
mississippi mean as a sun-drenched trumpet/man
holding dreams held high on any wind/light
voice walking on eggshells
2.
& time comes as the wrinkles
of your mother's skin shrinking inward
fly towards that compelling voice
light calling since time began
on the flip-side of spirit
you shed placentas at each stage of your music
then go down river exploring new blues
the drum skin of young years wearing down
the enigmatic search of your music
now your autumn years of shadows creeping twilight
dancers wrapped tight in cobwebs hold on
to one another
beneath fractured lights cracking the floor
their lives now prismatic poems at the point where the sun
disappears with every turning of the clock hands
spinning towards the death of light
there in the diamond point
of the river beyond the edges
the light glows smaller
grows inward becomes a seed to grow
another light illuminating the shadows
crystalline as this trumpetman
voice walking on eggshells
phosphorous as truth or blue
as luminescent water beneath the sun's eye
3.
O Silent Keeper of Shadows
of these gutted roads filled with gloomy ticking
of time-clocks/razor-bladed turnings of hairpin corners
of these irreducible moments of love found
when love was sought
iridescent keeper of rainbow laughter
arching out of broken-off gold-capped teeth
blues man holding the sun between his teeth
soothsayer of chewed-up moments
shekereman at the crossroads of cardinal points
talisman hanging from dewdrops singing deep
sea diver of transparent rhythmic poems
trumpet voice walking on eggshells
your shadow is as the river snake-thin
man at flood time blood lengthening in the veins
coursing through the earth's flesh
shaman man gone beyond the skies limit
music sleeps there in the riverbed
mississippi where those calcified shining bones sleep
deep reminding us of the journey from then to now
& from now to wherever it is we have to go
so pack your bags boy
the future is right around the corner
only a stone's throw from yesterday's/light
as is this carrier of afternoon dream music
trumpet voice walking on eggshells
this eggshell-walking trumpetman
voice hauntingly beautiful lyrical music man
gold as two cat eyes penetrating the midnight hours
as blood blackening the pavement mean music man
shadowman holding the night in the bell
of his trumpet singing
mississippi river pouring from roots of his eyes
4.
shadowman holding the night in his music
shekereman at the crossroads of cardinal points
elliptical talisman hanging from dewdrops singing
deep sea diver of haunting magical tones
trumpetman walking on eggshells
your shadow as the river at flood-time
snake-thin shaman man blade-sharp gone beyond
the sky's limit music sleeps there in your coursing
river veins curl around the bones
clear as diamond points on waters of sunsets
there where light grows inward
your genius moving out from that source
trumpetman walking on eggshells
afternoon dreamcarrier of blues in flight
steep night climber of haunting magical poems
juju hoodooman conjuring illuminating darkness
Copyright Credit: Quincy Troupe, "Four, and More" from Transcircularities: New & Selected Poems. Copyright © 2002 by Quincy Troupe. Reprinted by permission of Coffee House Press, www.coffeehousepress.org.
Source: Transcircularities: New & Selected Poems (Coffee House Press, 2002)