The Sunday Poem: “Front Row Seat For A Head-Bebopping Allergy Sufferer” by Francis Fernandes

April 6th, 2024

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

Francis Fernandes reads his poem at its conclusion.

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“Birch Trees in Spring,” by Gudi/via Pixabay

Front Row Seat For A Head-Bebopping Allergy Sufferer

The pollen is flying like mad –
frantic, crazy, amorphously Daliesque –
sort of like our trio the other day,
rollicking and lollygagging through Monk’s
Brilliant Corners, losing it so completely
that when Marty flung a stick at my head
and John, the discreet one, double dipped
his bass as though it were his dance partner,
I finally snapped out of it and
remembered not everyone might relate
to an over-exhilarated acolyte.
A truth I contemplate from the other side
today: without even glancing
through the window, I know that the birches,
in their fine green raiment, tossing their branches
in the wind like long-haired girls
at the beach with one hand on their sunhats,
are truly rejoicing with all of nature
and singing more than mere notes –
like the ones that gurgle through my living
room speakers, as though Thelonious,
the man himself, knew the loneliest monk
was right here, pried apart
from a world that so assuredly
announces itself, vibrantly yakking
and chittering in all its beautiful
nascent glory.

Listen to Francis Fernandes read his poem

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Francis Fernandes grew up and studied in Montréal, Canada. Since spring 2020, his writing has appeared in over twenty literary journals, including Modern Poetry Quarterly Review, Saint Katherine Review, The Orchards Poetry Journal, Third Wednesday. He lives in Frankfurt, Germany, where he writes and teaches.

Listen to the 1957 recording of Thelonious Monk’s “Brilliant Corners,” with Sonny Rollins (tenor saxophone); Ernie Henry (alto saxophone); Oscar Pettiford (bass); and Max Roach (drums). [Universal Music Group]