CANNONBALL ADDERLEY FRIDAY AFTERNOON
His sax says things are getting better.
He reaches for more. Moving
into the song a piano helps it go.
Now he says 75 things
are getting better. If this is so,
Cannonball, why have I turned
to the 19th Century? Not to Whitman,
not Twain, all moves I've made
in the past. I'm with Fred Douglass
and John Brown. Douglass
has re-translated Isaiah.
Brown has just left North Elba
following a utopian plan.
Timbukto. We're a long way
from the river Tuckahoe
catching elbows
from contented Christians.
Toni Morrison's letter
arrives in the mail,
Nobel Prize winner
working for Morris Dees
and Southern Poverty Law Center.
White racism, KKK
moving into mainstream comfort.
Riding rails, unsettled in time.
Dred Scott, man! Dred Scott!
Fugitive Slave Law on second rail.
Cannonball, Cannonball.
Speak to me of the 75 things!
Jim Bodeen
18 November 2018
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