1. An amateur explains Bop Part I

it throws you up
cuts you off
flirts with you
off
the
scale

it can run through your bones
in slow motion
slide.

It can
hang
like planets in the sky,
fall off the cliffs
fingers
keys

Jumps, catches you by your feet
It can
feed
a fat fish,
Slither inside your throat.
The double
bass now gives you a headache
sometimes in poverty
sometimes in rhyme.
who knows,
a river might just set itself free?

2. An amateur explains Bop Part II

run, run, run
money
The city has taken off its clothes
and it rains, naked bodies
window panes
sliding doors
escalators
evaporates into a smoke

the black hands

iron chimneys

waves
a sky of filth. above
lonely planets
who get high.
chemicals leak intestines.

The gods are in town and they are
burning the stage

one by one
they come and disappear

at odd hours of the night.

3. Coltrane

A cold train in rain.
A breeze through your veins
An acid in your throat.

Is he angry?
or is he just searching
the distance,
two points of time?

Hills breaks into rivers
Cage morphs into a bird

Hunger, an old trick.
In slavery, our freedom.
Through notes we can’t fathom
And a rhyme we have chosen to forget

An ancient snake breathes out her disgust.

4. Jazz for the have-nots

It is heavy like a thali.
A bag of stones over your chest.
It bleeds through the age, enslaves you
But they drink it with white wine

A city grown old
Counts its rage