1938
Superman flies onto his first comic book.
Oil bubbles up in Saudi Arabia.
Orson Welles' The War of the Worlds invades
every panicked radio along the eastern seaboard.
The Spanish Civil War rages on. Filming starts
on The Wizard of Oz. At New York City's
Carnegie Hall, John Hammond's Spirituals
To Swing concert explodes with African chants,
the Count Basie Band, boogie-woogie,
New Orleans jazz, hot gospel, stride piano,
harmonica instrumentals, Big Bill Broonzy's
blues. The audience hears the ghost of Robert
Johnson, four months gone, easing out
of a Victrola phonograph at center stage—
the entire concert suddenly enveloped
by the man who was not there.
Copyright Credit: J. Patrick Lewis, "1938" from Black Cat Bone, published by Creative Editions. Copyright © 2006 by J. Patrick Lewis. Reprinted by permission of J. Patrick Lewis.
Source: Black Cat Bone (Creative Editions, 2006)