DIDDLEY-BOP-SHE-BOP
Them knees,
full of bees again,
two gates
flapping in a stuttering breeze,
hands rapping
tables, thighs,
high up on
the chest, invest
the body in
the bopping sound
of Mister Monk
doing the Bemsha Swing,
the funkiest thing
in town tonight,
an old tape
lighting up Tashkent.
Swing that thing.
Make these rainy streets
ring in Navruz,
Central Asian New Year.
(At The Cafe in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Monk on the box, 1998)
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Michael L. Newell is a retired secondary school English/Theatre teacher who currently lives on the south-central Oregon coast. He has had poems recently published in (among other places) Verse-Virtual, Culture Counter, The Iconoclast, Ship of Fools, and Red Eft Review.
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fun, rhythm-soaked poem
Michael’s poetry makes me feel like i am there, my head was bopping as i read this poem!