SENOR BLUES, WHY IS YOUR OPUS DE FUNK?

 

Oh, Mister Silver, please please please,
don’t make me beat my feet
no more no more no more.

I’ve been finger poppin’, thinking
about Juicy Lucy, dreaming
of some sweet stuff,

wanting to come on home to some
home cookin’, I’ve been hankerin’
to hear a song for my father,

I’ve been sighin’ and cryin’ because
my woman is so lonely that I’ve got
silver treads among my soul.

The preacher says I’ve got to stop
creepin’ in to room 608, forget them Calcutta
cuties, lose those Tokyo blues,

cease and desist from swingin’ the samba, stop
time, cool those restless natives in my heart
and soul, and find some peace peace peace.

 

 

for Mister Horace Silver

 

 

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Michael L. Newell was a long time expatriate teacher (over twenty years) who has recently retired to coastal Oregon after living in thirteen other countries on five continents. He has also lived in thirteen of the United States. His work has been published in, among other places, Aethlon: The Journal of Sports Literature, Bellowing Ark, Culture Counter, Ship of Fools, Lilliput Review, and Rattle. He has had a number of books and chapbooks published. Among them are Traveling without Compass or Map (Bellowing Ark Press), A Long Time Traveling, Seeking Shelter, and Collision Course (all from Four Sep Press).

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Horace Silver plays “Senor Blues”