.
And they came into the New World.
It was 1953. The name of the tune was Motion.
The reeds were hard and soft at the same time.
At sunset beyond the bows of the beached ships the streamertails were flashing.
They resembled blue and green trick semaphores, light signals rising and flaring against a seaward deepblack glory.
Rita Hayworth and Stan Getz were dancing in a West Coast airplane shack made of thin porous wood, everything looked laminated, aerodynamic, in the painted hangar.
Takeoff into conflicted breezes, moving through a baffle of bamboo, gangway rolling slightly.
The ghost of a change happens to you if you let it.
Swaying bodies come apart, tropic clouds race a paper moon, a hot wind, paper palms falling down.
Some fragile coral green undersea thing is haunted by your breathing, the gardenia of your mouth, the jasmine of your skin, the fragrance of Negril, spices cast upon the night to fathom the remembered impulse of your inner life.
Red-billed Streamertail (Trochilus polytmus): photo by Dominic Sherony, 2007
Football at sunset, Negril: photo by Listgod, 2006
7 comments:
Clicking on the brilliant streamertail will expand your view of its green Jamaican habitat.
"Some fragile coral green undersea thing is haunted by your breathing"
Many beautiful lines
Thanks, Tom. I believe it was Zoot Sims who said about Stan Getz that he was "a nice bunch of guys."
Cheers,
Bill
Many thanks Gary and Bill.
Bill, could it be the reason there are so many pictures of Zoot Sims performing in thick glasses is that he had double vision and saw nice bunches of everybodys?
Zoot in prescription shades
this really hit me: "the fragrance of Negril"
even though I have never been there
Otto,
"...never been there".
Me likewise, alas. Though I'm sure we'd both like to go.
Until then, traveling strictly on poetic license...
(Thanks for stopping in, by the way. I've enjoyed your writing on your blog, keep up the strong work.)
"The ghost of a change happens to you if you let it"
How right you are =)
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