Mind/ful/l of Miles, by D.R. James

Mind/ful/l
of Miles

What’s new?
I too
am kind
of blue,
ear buds
soothing

“So What,”

Chambers
and then
Evans
noodling
Gil E.’s
intro.

Sooo what?

Upright
walks in
the tune,
conjures
modal
three-part

sooo what’s.

No mute
for Miles,
just cool,
crystal-
clearful
riffing.

Sooo what?

Coltrane’s
tenor
takes me…
Jimmy’s
brushing
behind.

Sooo what?

Cannon-
ball’s break
before
more Bill,
then back
as one:

Sooo what?

B-dah
b-dah-
b-dah
b-daaah:

Sooo what?

B-dah
b-dah
b-dah.
b-dah
bah:

Sooo what?

B-dah
b-dah-
b-dah
b-daaah:

Sooo what?

B-dah
bah-bah-
baaah:

Thaaa’s what.

D.R. James

This poem was first published in Ireland's Galway Review.

D. R. James has taught college writing, literature, and peace-making for 34 years and lives in the woods outside Saugatuck, Michigan, with his wife, psychotherapist Suzy Doyle. His work appears in various magazines and anthologies, his latest of seven collections is If god were gentle (Dos Madres Press, 2017), his micro-chapbook All Her Jazz will appear soon from The Origami Poems Project, and his chapbook Surreal Expulsion will be released in the spring of 2019 by The Poetry Box.  www.amazon.com/author/drjamesauthorpage