Today was a Jazz day.

Poem by Stephen Gulliford

Today was a Jazz day.

Cool blue nights rise and fall in the alley where the moon plays,
smackling off the brick and steel burrows of gods.
Spirits conjured in nostalgia of Lester Young.
Black and blue, blue and blue.

Today was a Jazz day, not unlike any other day.

The Duke puts a hitch in my get up.
I swing down the corridor, poppin jive and smokin cats.
Maids and home mama's catch my vibe.
Breakn bottles with sewing pins, the Jazz Messangers master the chi of Bebop.

Yes, it was a Jazz day.

A reefer smoke sets my stride.
The city is buzzing.
The mission looses its shine.
Lady Day holds my hand by the shade of the pear tree.

Today was Jazz day, night light eyes.

Lindy hoppin, rock droppin, hot mama's at every turn.
Sweet sweat and smoke lingering in the hall.
Don't dance a square to this jam.
I snap a finger, dreaming of a Love Supreme.

It was just a Jazz day, like any other day.

The morning is young, the night is cold.
My swing comes to sway.
I reach into my dreams,
praying that tomorrow would remember today
and maybe I would wake to find
that today, is a Jazz day.