The Last Jazz Fan

for David Peirce

The last jazz fan slipped

from the world one night

like the amorphous

notes of a trumpet solo

at closing time. Some say

reedy melodies hovered

above him like nimbus clouds

at the exact moment rhythm

left the room. Explosive riffs

be-bopped across the sky

when the last jazz fan

returned to stardust,

and clarinets cooled

the darkness. Some say

it is the silent spaces between

that describe the song,

but some say the spaces

might expand until

they swallow the song

and silence is certain.

http://www.chronogram.com/hudsonvalley/poem-the-last-jazz-dan/Content?mode=print&oid=2550516