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The Cover Cascades And Is Purple
by John Eivaz
yeah right
i know jazz i know coltrane
sheets of sound and all that
the more i read the more i listen to
people talk hmmm
i don't crave collections
researched reissues
i have TRANSITION
on vinyl
the first side ended
with Dear Lord
the cd has...
TRANSITION not sure what else
you'd think he was yelling
if you didn't listen
really listen
if you
really listen
it's
TRANSITION
sheets of sound and all that
flags of free waves
deep down the vortex
alighting on the ivories
brushing on drums ahead of themselves
why not fade out what little is really said
blot out what scratch was written
and call out Dear Lord once more
dance inside the bell
wrapped in vivifying sheets
each beat and note
a naive bohemian prayer
caring for all the others
within the overtones
or on their own
call out Dear Lord
round out the platter
Time Machine
by John Eivaz
My son turned eight last week and asked me a
question about divorce. It rang out like
cold hard cash on a corner store counter full of
nickel candies and wax fingers and the
like. It was about divorce, but now I
can't even recall the point of his question.
Where was I at eight? In church? Front of the
TV? On the wood floor of the candy store?
There was no Oprah, no wild exposure
to overweight dating, transvestite
gardening and the like, baseball cards were all
over the street. Divorce was when all the prices
started going up, and the store changed hands
about three times, each keeper determined to
upgrade and modernize. Weird stuff was in,
the comic book rack was out. But everyone's
parents had always been married, would
always stay married. Heck, we didn't even
think like married: they were just our
mom and dad. About the same time as we had
to start going up the hill to get our
comics, we heard about Mister Nicholls --
the owner of the store at the time -- he
was selling smokes one by one from under
the counter, and someone had seen him leaving
the fat lady's house in the middle
of the afternoon. Aw jeez, I said, I
ain't got time for spying I gotta get up
the hill before Charlie's closes. I tell
my son that sometimes change comes from failure
and sometimes failure from change. And that
giving up is pretty much a small part of both.
Here's some change, the ice cream guy's
coming, don't mess up your clothes, and come in
when your mother calls you. I tell him
some people just don't have the time for
divorce, and some people just don't have enough
faith in each other. He senses a joke,
and something way over his head and the
bells are ringing and it's still daylight outside.
©2001 by John Eivaz
John Eivaz was born in New York and now lives in California. His writing
has been featured in a few small press publications, and also online at
various Web sites. He was a staff member of Haiku Headlines (aka The
Full Deck) for over a year, contributing news haikus, limericks and
funny topical songs. Writing as "john e," his erotica has appeared online
at Erotica Readers Association, Clean Sheets, Mind Caviar, Ophelia's
Muse and other Web sites. He works at a winery.
Coltrane's Transition at Amazon
Art print by A. Gockel,
Jazz Saxophone
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