The Sunday Poem: “Doxy” by Molly Larson Cook

August 20th, 2023

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

Molly Larson Cook reads her poem at its conclusion.

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“Doxy,” by Molly Larson Cook, from her series “The Colors of Jazz“

Doxy

I once said I’d marry a man
Who could hum the first four bars
Of Cal Tjader’s “Doxy.”
We say these foolish things
When we’re young and
Still learning the ways of the world.
The first four bars of Cal Tjader’s “Doxy”
are not the basis for
Love. Or a life.
Still…
Sometimes when I heard those Sonny Rollins notes
A nameless, jazz-loving man’s face appeared before me
As surely as if he’d walked through the doorway of the little club
On Third Avenue where I once sat at a table near the band
And sipped a cool gin and tonic in the heat of a New York summer.

Postscript:
I married a man who
Knew nothing of Cal Tjader’s “Doxy”
But walked one afternoon through the doorway of a
Restaurant by the sea in San Diego, smiled,
And laid his claim
Just as I heard Etta James begin to sing “At Last”
…you know how that song goes…
And I, looking up at him, smiled back,
Then turned my face to God
And noted that this moment was a little over the top.
True story.
There’s irony for you.

Listen to Molly Larson Cook read her poem

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Molly Larson Cook is an award-winning Oregon writer, writing coach, and artist. In 2016, she received the first Steve Kowit Poetry Prize in a national competition. Molly was a Fellow at the Fishtrap Writers Conference in Oregon where she worked with poet Naomi Shihab Nye. Molly’s jazz novel, Listen, was published in a limited edition in 2003. “Her Colors of Jazz” paintings are at mollylarsoncookpaintings.wordpress.com.

Listen to the 1965 recording of vibraphonist Cal Tjader performing Sonny Rollins’ composition “Doxy,” with Paul Laurence Griffin (piano); Richard Davis (double bass); Armando Peraza (percussion); Grady Tate (drums). [Universal Music Group]