Ghost Town Sonnet
The Father the Jazzman
Head shaking nervously hands convulsing of their own accord advancing along a line sinuously graceful a threaded piano line ice-cold jazz reflecting from a metal surface
wood had been oiled to keep out the water but all he remembers is his father’s cigarette unfiltered the smoke curling blue hands shaping now to make a circle the pulsing severity of an upright bass
the echo of birds from a magnolia tree darkness re-expressed as green a reinvigoration of the idea of city hands trembling nervously but a drumbeat will carry the heart past despair.
Paul Ilechko is a British/American poet. Born in South Yorkshire, he now lives with his partner in Lambertville, NJ. His work has appeared in a variety of journals, including The Night Heron Barks, Louisiana Literature, Iron Horse Literary Review, Sleet Magazine, and The Inflectionist Review. His first album, Meeting Points, was released in 2021.