The Sunday Poem: “Day Dream” by Charlie Brice

November 23rd, 2024

The Sunday Poem is published weekly, and strives to include the poet reading their work.

Charlie Brice reads his poem at its conclusion.

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photo via pxhere

Day Dream

Lauren, my high school sweetheart, and I
drive down Fifth Avenue in NYC, not in my
mother’s blue 1967 Cadilac, but in my polished

silver Caddy. This is after our group, The Kansas
City Soul Association, makes it big and I, their
drummer, can afford such a ride. It’s early
evening and the street’s wet from rain. The

Caddy’s hood gleams sleek while we listen
to Johnny Hodges blow Day Dream smooth
as mist rising from asphalt. Lauren wears

a sequined gown that shows off all her pleasure-
parts, parts I wanted to touch in my basement
in Cheyenne but couldn’t because of the massive
force of the entire Catholic Church. In my

day dream, it’s blessedly possible. We drive
toward dinner at some French restaurant where
a different waiter brings each of our five courses.

We take in a concert by Duke—Johnny’s sax
brilliant on the Harlem stage—finish up at my
penthouse where the night’s gyrations would
exhaust Barnum and Bailey’s highest flyers.

Fifty years later it’s pleasant to remember an
adolescent day dream. Lauren and I drifted
apart forever ago. These days my wife and I

order in, leery of another round of COVID.
Most of our parts ache. We’re creeping up
to eighty. Even so, Johnny’s sweet horn
and Billy’s silky notes give us something

to get cheek to cheek about, something
to dream on days of wrinkled hope
and shattered despair.

Listen to Charlie Brice read his poem

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Charlie Brice won the 2020 Field Guide Poetry Magazine Poetry Contest and placed third in the 2021 Allen Ginsberg Poetry Prize. His sixth full-length poetry collection is Pinnacles of Hope (Impspired Books, 2022). His poetry has been nominated three times for both the Best of Net Anthology and the Pushcart Prize and has appeared in Atlanta Review, The Honest Ulsterman, Ibbetson Street, The Paterson Literary Review, Impspired Magazine, Salamander Ink Magazine, and elsewhere.

Listen to the 1940 recording of Johnny Hodges and His Orchestra performing the Billy Strayhorn/Duke Ellington composition “Day Dream,” with Hodges (alto saxophone); Cootie Williams (trumpet); Lawrence Brown (trombone); Harry Carney (baritone saxophone); Ellington (piano); Jimmy Blanton (bass); and Sonny Greer (drums). [RCA/Bluebird]