It whistles and it grins
it gives you greetings
with the full corn cob of blue its teeth resemble
it wants to bite you, wants to give you something
and as you watch it it will seem to grow much brighter
than some day-of-the-dead candied confectionery
Skull, will you swim
in the river?
Lady, no, it makes me
shiver.
Skull, will you ride
in the fields?
My lord, no, it gives
me chills.
¿Well, then, where
will you go now?
I must find the
hallowed ground.
The children tell you tales of the night and bogeymen
they sing in the language of your final breath and beat
they play beside your body
and their game
is just a ring dance that perhaps you wrote some day
but now can but whistle can but simply whistle
you’ve turned into a bird
instead of a birdcage, you’re trapped on this chair
and you just cannot move you
fly ‘cross the floor
translate it all from reality into song
because you’re gone, Charles Mingus, from thirst to dread
from the desert to the glimmer of the ocean to the light
sometimes you remember standing in line before the cops
and feel like you might cry or like you’d like to break a window
whistle into the tape
go on writing songs
a beating heart in your soul plays a bass guitar solo
You listen and you smile
with the full corn cob of blue your teeth resemble
and take it in your hands
to translate
let yourself go like a fish into the river
where you whistle
your last tune.