Don (Ellis)

Don Ellis took me from/the Mound lands/Of Illinois-Missouri

(Don Ellis. Photo courtesy of discogs.com)

Don (Ellis)

More than any other
trumpeter apart from Miles
Don Ellis took me from 
the Mound lands 

Of Illinois-Missouri 
to the bowels of Bed-Sty
Manhattan (another artery) where 

Architects who build doorless porticos 
that speak livery and later die on a tail 
along the Hudson River Parkway 

Design their mecca with no soul 
brothers; more than a Juliard or Cage
seated but unmoving at the keys

Ellis showed my inner mirror 
was not a white woman in knee
boots but the Triborough Bridge 

Who never returned my calls
because I forgot my high school 

Spanish. Harlem and East 
like Mississippi speak embochure 
from Granite City to New Orleans 
and crypto stooge

The drugs the action dear sir is not 
on a boat come in from France or within 
a maquilador-made sedan but along 
avenues of goods we can't afford.

-Jeremy Nathan Marks