let’s be honest, it’s better that way by Scott Ferry

no one can play as well
as Rouse and Monk play
i can attempt to explain
after three whiskeys

how when i choose the Holy
Quartet as background prayer 
Rouse’s sax twists the vowels
up the lemon cake 

the piano jitters the blur and i stop reading 
but whole paragraphs sparkle from the drywall 
my hands now trace the ignition
backbone slips out of the boil

and Monk gets up walks up to Gales 
stammering step as the fingers thread 
the loop and the sigh
threading loops and looping stops  

and Monk sits again thundering his thimbles
soft inside the spheres each note destroying
but leaping and Riley clicking the soap from the lids
cleaning up the sauce from the river

and me still not reading but math-stumping 
the answers to the equations the current spinning
from the tip of Monk’s hat
and only the drunk can sleep

as Prospero
builds palaces with keys
and pours out skinless 
gods

Scott Ferry helps our Veterans heal as a RN. He has recent work in Misfit, MacQueen's Quinterly, and Spillway. His second chapbook Mr. Rogers Kills Fruit Flies will come out in October 2020 from Main St. Rag. You can find more of his work at Ferrypoetry.com.