I Could Give You 51 Reasons by Connie Johnson

 

To suspend belief out here in this

Harlem lounge, captured by James Van Der Zee,

Black & white: aspirational. I marvel at your features

So stark and dapper in your sharkskin suit.

 

Count up the reasons jazz gives us this feeling

Hand the bottle around the table.  Your eyes are

Ever watchful, tenor sax a jackpot

Prize after prize after prize.

 

What’s on the menu: oysters, fresh killed broiler?

Electric, smoke-filled, all your business told in a

Saxophonic cry. Remembering the taste of Four Roses

They all heard you say the drinks are on you.

 

Pose like the winner you are, jazz the reason

We preen and sway. I whisper Billie when you

Call me honey.  Give me your full attention, baby 

Nobody’s starving for love tonight.

 

 

Connie Johnson is a Los Angeles, California-based writer whose  poetry has appeared or will be forthcoming in Iconoclast, Haight-Ashbury Literary Journal, Jerry Jazz Musician, San Pedro River Review, Cholla Needles 85, The Rye Whiskey Review, Shot Glass Journal, Voicemail Poems, Misfit Magazine, Mudfish 23, Exit 13, Glint Literary Journal,  and Door Is a Jar.