Blues for Red
by Tom Bauer
I’m looking in crowds
where you won’t be
looking for you
strolling with Raphael
humming, loaded on caffeine
café au lait, iced mochachino
coffee, whipped cream, chocolate, steamed milk
a love supreme on our lips
chanting as we walk, talk, laugh, hoot, grimace
and grin, tabling topics
stamping in our rutting, lonely strutting
until my friend suggests a test:
don’t laugh at anyone, don’t put them down
for three blocks to the music store
don’t rant because we don’t have love
don’t complain about weightlifters and ugly people
homeless persons, drunks, druggies begging coins
flashy dressers, just try, try, try instead
to see them children be this Coltrane, be it, see it
angels everywhere, in everyone
though none like you, Red, looking for you
in downtown crowds, looking for you
at the Montreal Cosmos show
looking for you, tall, legs, red, hair
that, smile, that, beauty
why beauty? Why you?
To help me think of something, not you
that’s why, something not as easy as God
as easy through prayer comes God
in everything the air vibrating, God
the mass, moving, smoking, littering, God
heat reflecting on cars, God
glare of sunlight on streets, God
a love supreme
lifting me, thinking about our jam, yeah
blues for red, piano, bass, yeah
a love, su, preme
luck be a vessel
looking for lover, you in the crowd
looking where you won’t
be living in the memory
the feel of you, tall, in my arms
the feel of your neck, my lips, your smile
when you smiled
to make sure I would lick and
the light in your eyes when I said I would
for hours and hours, smiling in mind
visions, trying to find you
downtown where you cannot be, hoping
willing, just to see, see you
someone just to forget
some other someone I can talk to
the way I talked with you, music here
watching, you, paint, more art, more life
someone, love, a lover, more lover
red like you, freckled, fair, skin
the sun above, skies blue, Raphael
great big smile checking
every woman, pretty, sexy, tall
he likes them tall this short man does
blond arrogant face
lover of hot food and women, music
life, traffic, a love supreme
moving, how many?
in a city of three million, how many?
not counting over thirty-five
under twenty-two, married, not for me
speaking languages I never learned
not into music, math, art, science
not into love, forget blondes, brunettes
non-freckled women without red hair, under five-six
eliminate all and maybe more chance, Carl Sagan
of alien civilizations on other planets
less than ten? Five? maybe it’s one, maybe it’s true
only one, only you, only love, one chance
maybe one, one where I find it
only in dreams, me meeting
finding you, flying, living, music, learned
free, you, your arms again
here, now, angel, you now, visitor now
long-time friend come back to fly
me to the stars in our love supreme.
