There Were Birds (For Charlie Parker) Poem by ron androla

There Were Birds (For Charlie Parker)



there was a chicken
resonating over other yardbirds
that warbled like a long liquid corderoy clarinet
that rose from farm dirt with wings made of horse
eye stare & ground-down reticulated ankle knuckle
that rolled over wet cities in a mixture of black
feathers & golden bourbon in moon glass delicacy
there were birds
in dusk-waking bars ordering highballs
habits & fresh beer there were birds
backstage wiggling, worm-swallowing joints
their necks bursting circular splatter blood on walls
there was a chicken-beak syringe stuck in charlie's
bare forearm & that chicken slid its soft soul into him
he was in foggy mists of transmigration when
someone slapped the lights
& he blew a black lace veil of stars away
& he burst the heads off listeners
& he smashed nested eggs with a sledgehammer saxophone
echo until he was the last bird on earth
that died, crushed by jazz-altered gravity of time

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ron androla

ron androla

New Castle, Pennsylvania
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