Charlie Parker negative
No trickster god,
demon, savior, saint or
train wreck, but human, very.
Not irrational, primal,
primitive, dark unconscious,
exile or martyr.
No more priapic
than your Sunday morning
erection. Not lost or liminal.
There are no “Negro streets,”
no heroin angels or
lavender moons of despair.
No lilac evenings, no metaphors.
They all went bust, and all
is not well, not well at all.
No “pure instinct.” But
fifteen hours practice a day,
and love might begin again.
_____
Sean Lause teaches courses in Shakespeare, Literature and the Hero, and Medical Ethics at Rhodes State College in Lima, Ohio. His poems have appeared in Another Chicago Magazine, The Minnesota Review, The Alaska Quarterly, The Beloit Poetry Journal, The Pedestal, European Judaism, Sanskrit and Poetry International. His first book of poems, Bestiary of Souls, was published by FutureCycle Press in 2013.
