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“A Tisket-a-Tasket” by Russell duPont

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I Have Almost Everything

And everything you say to me is velvet
Enveloped in scat, a language I understand from the inside of a shot glass
It’s elementary, feeling sacred. Almost like a benediction
Like Ella, like pearls before all that was meant to be mine

Don’t get shy now, sunlight glittering off your tongue
That’s a surprise. I thought you’d be more comfortable with moonlight
Adventurous, feeling more than mysterioso

why can’t i have love like that brought to me?

It’s a reasonable request
Though ordinarily I travel light, everything I own close at hand
Lacking little, a sacred benediction. And don’t get me started
Because who says I want you to know where I’m coming from?

Maybe I don’t want to tell you all of my secrets, like how amazing I find it
That life can be distilled into one golden wail of a Billy Strayhorn declaration
Everything is elementary, my dear

I want something to live for.

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Connie Johnson was born and raised in Los Angeles, CA. She began writing poems in 1976, but chose to pursue a career in music journalism. Since 2020, her focus has returned to poetry and her work has appeared or will be forthcoming in Iconoclast, Haight-Ashbury Literary Journal, Mudfish and Exit 13.

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Russell duPont is an artist and an author whose artwork is included in a number of public and private collections. He has published two novels, King & Train and Waiting for the Turk; two books of poetry; and two non-fiction chapbooks. His essay, “The Corner,” is included in the anthology Streets of Echoes. His work has been published in various newspapers and literary magazines. He was the founder & publisher of the literary magazine,.the albatross.

Visit his website by clicking here

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Listen to the 1965 recording Ella Fitzgerald (with Duke Ellington’s orchestra) singing Billy Strayhorn’s “Something to Live For” [Universal Music Group]

 

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