.

.

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

Rebecca Watkins reads her poem at its conclusion.

.

.

___

.

.

Carol M. Highsmith’s America, Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division.  Gift; Carol M. Highsmith; 2011; (DLC/PP-2002:038-8)

.

 

One Night in New Orleans

.

I.

In the photograph, I’m leaning against a lamppost.
The Bourbon Street sign above me. A young cliché,
sunburnt, smiling at my boyfriend behind the camera
until the jazz lulled us like tendrils of heat into smokey
bars where horns dipped and flared like my hips, his
hands gripped. The cymbals snapped like June bugs
banging their bodies again the screen, wanting in, in.
Music was the siren that summoned my body to sway.
I closed my eyes, light as jasmine in the night air.

.

II.

We spilled into another bar where in the low light,
a man with cracked skin, a hat pulled low, sang the blues
a faraway look in his eyes, the same look my dad got
after some whiskey, after working too hard, when hours
and longing carved lines in his face deep as train tracks
going nowhere. Feeling both young and old, I closed
my eyes knowing the blue in them would give me away.

.

Listen to Rebecca Watkins read her poem

.

.

___

.

.

Rebecca Watkins  holds an MFA in poetry and an MSed from the City University of New York.  Her poems have appeared in  The Banyan Review,  Sin Fronteras,  New Feather’s Anthology,  The Roanoke Review,  and  Anderbo – among other literary journals.  Her creative nonfiction has been shortlisted for  The Malahat Review’s Open Season Awards.  She is the author of  Field Guide to Forgiveness  (Finishing Line Press 2023)  and  Sometimes, in These Places (Unsolicited Press 2017).   More of her work can be found at rebeccawatkinswriter.com.

.

.

Listen to the 1980 recording of Louisiana native Professor Longhair perform the Bert Russell composition “Cry to Me” [Exceleration Music]

.

.

___

.

.

Click for:

The Sunday Poem Archive

More poetry on Jerry Jazz Musician

War. Remembrance. Walls. The High Price of Authoritarianism – by editor/publisher Joe Maita

“My Vertical Landscape,” Felicia A. Rivers’ winning story in the 69th Jerry Jazz Musician Short Fiction Contest

More short fiction on Jerry Jazz Musician

Information about how to submit your poetry or short fiction

Subscribe to the (free) Jerry Jazz Musician quarterly newsletter

Helping to support the ongoing publication of Jerry Jazz Musician, and to keep it commercial-free (thank you!)

.

___

.

.

Jerry Jazz Musician…human produced since 1999

.

.

.