GOODBYE PORKPIE HAT

This poem is dedicated to  Lawrence Ferlinghetti and is presented in honor of his 100th birthday – March 24th, 2019.

Goodbye Porkpie Hat is a track from Charles Mingus’ 1959 album, Mingus Ah, Um.  

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      GOODBYE PORKPIE HAT

    

Then he found himself

pulling a dust record

from its worn torn cover:

“Mingus – Ah Um,”

the tenor sax wails

over the static

in monophonic infidelity;

a music displaced

in time.

The images rise in a Proustian rush

within the Coney Island

of his mind

Jack and Neal

On The Road

with Al

smoking Pall Mall

at two AM

in a hazy cafe

somewhere

in the

Village

while Sonny

wrought soul

out of brass.

We was cool, Dad

and I

am still

waiting…

Unresolved, the last chord fades

into the hum

of a flickering vacuum tube,

He wakes to find

his goatee

        grey

his espresso

decaffeinated. 

Dedicated to Lawrence Ferlinghetti

KURT BIEHL ©1984