THE GREEN MILL
by Victor Enns
You are amused
by my passion
for taxicabs.
Their drivers know
where we are
going.
We don’t need a map
to get to this
whiskey bar
as old as the jazz
brought up the river,
a heartbeat
of an America
that scares me
half to death.
Notes bend
around the two of us,
bring us the love
we left home
to find, now
we improvise
__________
I don’t need a woman
To cook and clean for me
Just a girl who mimics
A coca cola bottle
Whose hips remind me
Of congas
A woman who looks
Good coming and
Going
But if she wants to occasionally
Cook me some soul food
And tempt me with latin
Jazz
Its all good with me
__________
For the Love Of
by Aurora Lewis
Stepdad Jack gifted her with a floor model stereo hi-fi
the center piece of a sparsely furnished apartment
he built a bar with his own hands where
they sat and drank Akadama Plum Wine
accompanied by Dave Brubeck, Jimmy Smith,
Art Blakley and the Jazz Messengers, Nat Adderley
greatest of all Miles Davis, all obtained from a mail order
record club, 10 albums for a dollar then a new one
every month, she added Dinah Washington, Gloria Lynn
Nancy Wilson, and the incomparable Sarah Vaughn
permeating my space, formulating that inner
part of me lost, digging her music
Then there was Billie Holiday breaking this young
girl’s heart even before my first crush
My mother’s music became my music
resonating within, causing me to push aside
The Motown Review, Rolling Stones 12 X 5
On my 16th birthday I asked for Chico Hamilton’s
El Chico a daily repetition of Conquistadores
causing my mother to shake her head and smile
while leaving me to my special place
My first true love played the cornet
was being a jazz musician merely a coincidence
or was there an aura, a strain bringing us together
We made love on a mattress on the floor, White Port
and lemon juice, weed, Miles and Coltrane
my nourishment until he moved on
his departure my lament, still there was the jazz
Clinging to my mother’s music, my inamorato gone
as I found Solitude in Billie Holiday, desperately
longing for that Lover Man, my Love Supreme,
A daily sip of Bitches Brew
Still losing myself within the music
for the love of
Victor Enns reads and writes poetry and fiction. Afghanistan Confessions, poems in the voice of Canadian soldiers, was published in 2014, boy in 2012. Lucky Man (2005) was nominated for the McNally Robinson Manitoba Book of the Year award. His poems have appeared in Canadian publications and including Rattle (print) and Shot Glass Journal (online) in the U.S.
Erren Kelly is a two-time Pushcart nominated poet from Boston whose work has appeared in 300 publications (print and online), including Hiram Poetry Review, Mudfish, Poetry Magazine, Ceremony, Cacti Fur, Bitterzoet, Cactus Heart, Similar Peaks, Gloom Cupboard, and Poetry Salzburg.
*
Aurora M. Lewis, worked in the banking financial industry for 40 years and retired early in 2009. That same year she received a Certificate in Creative Writing-General Studies from UCLA, with honors. Her poems, short stories, and nonfiction have been accepted by The Literary Hatchet, Gemini Magazine, Persimmon Tree, and Tinderbox Poetry Journal, among others.
