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Callaloo 23.4 (2000) 1319-1321



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Cottontail
for Ben Webster

Brian Gilmore


he writes
"swing like prez"
in the margin of
the sheet music
lays there
soft
on a vine
moves side to side
with the wind
rug cuts high above
the clouds
flies over kansas city
looks down on
bennie moten
jimmy rushing
big joe turner
mary lou williams
pours his heart out
like cold beer
joins the
greatest show on earth
grabs gershwin by the throat
turns him into a rhythm god
fills that horn up with scotch
and brandy every night [End Page 1319]
drenches the crowd with a special
hot mix
       call him the rooster
crowing mean and mellow
the good and the bad
a two faced virtuoso
ask him
how does it feel to
have your heart turned into
cracker crumbs?
throw the
woman you love
out of a window
at the dunbar hotel
in los angeles?
dive into
the rio grande and save
lester young from drowning?
beautiful sometimes is the brute
a sound wrapped in a blanket
rooster ben hugging the blues
like a lady
standing
beside rabbits
hawks
birds
a mean old world
he holding onto
sax solos oftentimes
knife fights
afterwards
sip red wine
sit down
relax
play piano like fats waller [End Page 1320]
remember how your name was
called on "cottontail"
for the very first time
step forward with a chest full
of stories
pistol in one hand
roses in the other
seek water to dive into
where the waves are tough
and tender
save us all from drowning . . .



Brian Gilmore, a resident of Takoma Park, Maryland, was born in Washington, DC. This practicing attorney is author of two books of poems, Elvis Presley Is Alive and Well and Living in Harlem and Jungle Nights and Soda Fountain Rags.

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