I Hear Jazz

Poetry

Ian Sherlock

I hear jazz

when I open a can of

Diet Coke always Diet

a crack and a

gasp of ragtime.

I hear jazz

as I fall from

Lake George cliffs in

that split-second summer

eternity when water

turns to asphalt

I hear jazz

when I remember

that bebopping guitar

I couldn’t pry from

his fingers flicking nickel

strings like tendons dripping

with boring blood

I get along without you very well

except sometimes

I hear jazz.