quite the impression By J.J. Campbell

in the wet neon

i will always hear

a saxophone off in

the distance

all those nights down

on fifth left quite the

impression

lighting cigarettes for

drunken women while

frank would play note

after note

i would try to get a line

in or two but i was 17

and most of these late

twenties early thirties

women were with someone

that looked like they

wanted to beat the shit

out of someone

that was when i first

learned about timing

and how to talk my 

way out of anything

that usually still 

works to this day

at least i’m old enough

now to get in those bars

frank is gone but the

music is still here

of course, we’re all

smoking something

different these days

J.J. Campbell (1976 - ?) is old enough to know better. He's been widely published over the years, most recently at Synchronized Chaos, Disturb the Universe Magazine, The Beatnik Cowboy, Lothlorien Poetry Journal and Black Coffee Review. You can find him most days on his mildly entertaining blog, evil delights. (https://evildelights.blogspot.com)