& It’s Jazz Artistry
Expansive blessings, taking me into a realm
of sea roses & lilies; oh, I feel like being transformed!
Every time I get bathed in mercy I remember the first time
I saw your face in the 7th Ward. Your bemused smile, the way
you thought you’d be able to control me. (Nobody controls me
but my Maker!) Fused notes, sculpted melodies & all of our
intentions: emotions on the canvas of the soul: experimental.
Shafts of light, southern magnolias & memory.
How can one capture all of that on canvas?
Precise.
Intricate details.
We color outside the lines, original thinking is what got us here!
To verify, just listen to the jazz that is a shock of awakening,
the sin that seeps from the paint brush & fingertips.
Don’t lose faith, my love!
You are everything that is jazz to me;
I’m your very brush stroke every time
you need to be redeemed.
Unspoken
I’m that deep dive of an unspoken secret
an endless spin of Sade’s Your Love Is King
but when do I get to sing a fluttery vibrato
& my own curated cool school of jazz?
I’m an infinite feast of
everything buried in the soul…
I’m just patiently waiting for you
to partake
my lavender noir
my bebop boudoir
my buried roots are what bind you to me
& what I am is a woman endlessly waiting!
what I remember is every secret
you swore not to tell
Into the Unknown
they intrigue me
him, bearded / sauntering
his dog, leashed with a
dainty trot
life’s so bumper to bumper
as I head east on Sunset Boulevard
radio headlines about what ails the
nation on this steamy afternoon
irked and anxious
I quickly turn the station
Fletcher Henderson swings
supreme on Hotter Than ‘Ell
instead of driving
I should walk / problems herculean
as I ponder the carbon footprint
of a fast food/ drive-thru burger
On this sizzling hot day with life’s
eternal urgencies / on a planet bound
to burst into flames / spirits buck loose
beneath the pavement
let us walk freely, swingingly!
into the unknown
Connie Johnson is a Pushcart Prize-nominated writer from California. Her publishing credits include Sheila-Na-Gig, Syncopation Literary Journal, Misfit Magazine, Gargoyle, Muleskinner Journal, The Rye Whiskey Review, and Cacti Fur. Everything is Distant Now (Blue Horse Press) is her debut poetry collection; In a Place of Dreams, her digital chapbook, was published by Jerry Jazz Musician.
