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Trading Fours with Douglas Cole is an occasional series of the writer’s poetic interpretations of jazz recordings and film.
In this edition, he writes two poems inspired by the music of Matt Wilson’s tune “Feel the Sway.”
A recording of Mr. Cole reading his work (accompanied by the guitarist Chris Broberg) is found at the conclusion of the poem, as is Wilson’s tune.
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photo via Negative Space
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Change of Luck 1
I had an old car
with a fender rusted out
on the back left side
and it was just another spot
of decay and breakdown
on that old machine
but as I drove around
I kept hearing this tinkling
Stan Getz-like music
like tiny wind chimes
and I kept seeing flashes of light
glinting on the road behind me
as though everywhere I went
I was spreading happy angel dust
full of miracle goodness and light
and that’s when I noticed that
something was falling out
through that rusty hole
so I opened the trunk
and there in the wheel well
I found a paper bag full of coins
and I marveled
like I’d found a pot of gold
at the end of the rainbow
because I needed that money
it came at the right time
I was hungry
my girlfriend was hungry
we hadn’t eaten anything but rice
for a couple of weeks
so I took that cash home
and we went for a steak dinner
it wasn’t the most expensive steak
but it was the best steak
I remember ever having
and we made love that night
in our rusty old Murphy bed
and laughed and felt good
for the luck that came our way
and when we slept at last
we slept like the dead
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Change of Luck 2
So we were driving in Azusa
on a hot evening
listening to Coltrane on the radio
when a guy waved me on
to make a left turn into a strip mall
where we were going
to get some tacos and see a movie
then a woman slammed into us
knocked the front end
of my car sideways
crushed her front bumper and hood
no one was hurt
so we all pulled into the parking lot
the cops came
I told them what happened
she came out of nowhere
they said I was making a left turn
so it was automatically my fault
automatically
she had a nice fur coat
and did I mention it was hot?
I had no insurance at the time
so they took away my license
and that meant I had to get insurance
to get my license back
but when you have to get insurance
to get your license back
the insurance companies charge you
an arm and a leg
(I’m not joking)
so I got insurance from a guy in a trailer
up there on Arrow Highway
he wore a silk shirt
and gold chains around his neck
heavy gold bracelets on his wrist
he was slick and friendly
and when I got my license back
it had a stamp on it that said
For Work Only
which meant I was only supposed
to drive between home and work
which also meant that if I were stopped
driving anywhere but between home and work
I’d lose my license again
and have to pay a bigger fine
and maybe lose my license for longer
but I just drove as I always did
wherever I needed to go I went
but soon I got a letter
from the lady’s insurance company
and they wanted money
to pay for her damaged car
but I didn’t have the money
not the amount they were asking for
it would take me years to come up with
the amount they were asking for
I was trapped
Now by chance at that time
we were moving to San Diego
my girlfriend was going to college
there and I applied late and wouldn’t start
for another semester so in the meantime
I went to a community college nearby
so I wouldn’t have to pay my loans
and there was a guy there
a lawyer who came on campus
two afternoons a week
to give pro bono legal advice
I’d never heard of anything like that
and I thought I’d ask him
if there was anything I could do
about this insurance company
so I went to see him
he was sitting in this little office
leaning back in a chair
with his feet up on the desk
and he was wearing big cowboy boots
and he said
what can I do ya for?
and I told him my story
my situation
and he said
there’s no law that says you have to make
yourself or your whereabouts known
to anyone
so what you do is put in a change of address
to someplace where someone you know lives
and tell them they’ll receive a registered letter
in your name
and when they get it they should say
they have no idea who you are
the letter will go back
and you’ll just have to wait
don’t get pulled over by the police
don’t get a ticket of any kind
and after seven years
you might beat the statute of limitations
and so I did just that
I put in a change of address
using my sister’s place
and sure enough
she received a registered letter
just as he said
and just as he said
she pretended not to know who I was
and the letter went away
and believe it or not
for seven anxiety-spiked years
I never got a ticket
never was stopped by the police
and now I don’t know
if I was just a perfect driver
or maybe I was invisible
but yes the seven years passed
and I got a new license and better insurance
I’m a regular citizen now
I vote
but that insurance company still exists
you know?
and they have memories like elephants
and I’m not so sure there really is
a statute of limitations
and it’s been so long now
I’m not so sure there ever really was a lawyer
and every time I see
an ad for that insurance company
or one of their buildings
my skin crawls
like their scanning rays
are sweeping over me
like they’re picking me up
on their radar
like they’re still looking
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Listen to Douglas Cole (accompanied by the guitarist Chris Broberg) read “Change of Luck”
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Listen to the 2006 recording of drummer Matt Wilson’s tune “Feel the Sway,” which inspired Doug Cole’s poems. [The Orchard].
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Click here for Matt Wilson’s Wikipedia page
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photo by Jenn Merritt
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Douglas Cole has published six collections of poetry and The White Field, winner of the American Fiction Award. His work has appeared in several anthologies as well as journals such as The Chicago Quarterly Review, Poetry International, The Galway Review, Bitter Oleander, Chiron, Louisiana Literature, Slipstream, as well Spanish translations of work (translated by Maria Del Castillo Sucerquia) in La Cabra Montes. He is a regular contributor to Mythaixs, an online journal, where in addition to his fiction and essays, his interviews with notable writers, artists and musicians such as Daniel Wallace (Big Fish), Darcy Steinke (Suicide Blond, Flash Count Diary) and Tim Reynolds (T3 and The Dave Matthews Band) have been popular contributions. He has been nominated twice for a Pushcart and Best of the Net and received the Leslie Hunt Memorial Prize in Poetry. He lives and teaches in Seattle, Washington.
Douglas’ poem, “What We Talk About When We Talk About Kind of Blue,” published as part of his “Trading Fours” series, was nominated for the XLVIII Pushcart Prize
Click here to visit his website.
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The poet’s collection, The Blue Island
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Initially inspired by Texas bluesman Lightning Hopkins, Chris Broberg studied jazz guitar in San Diego, California and has been performing jazz , blues, and original music since the 1990s. He currently resides in Bellingham Washington.
Click here to visit his YouTube page
Click here to visit his Facebook page
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Click here to read previous editions of Trading Fours with Douglas Cole
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Click here to read The Sunday Poem
Click here to learn how to submit your poetry or short fiction
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