Frank

like god
    or miles,
no second name is
needed.

as opposed to
    "reservation for sinatra;
party of 37.

can I get a last name,
    for the maitre'd,
      you understand."

the heart needs
    no such pretense

when "in the wee small hours"
  plays,

its longing
unpretentious
and haunting as
moonlight.

a 32 bar ashram;

    peace from a boy
from Hoboken

if he was an asskicker,
so be it.

I think of the brilliant brown voices
of my youth;

they too needed
protection,

and nights when
the angels needed
rest.

I dared not replace his
albums

in stores where my face is
familiar

--because my love for his sound
is as personal as
        stretchmarks

surrounding my ribcage
like rings on a tree
old enough to remember

"all the things you
are"

Reuben Jackson works as an archivist with the Smithsonian's Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald Collections. His first book of poems entitled Fingering the Keys won the 1992 Columbia Book Award.

...