The Max Levine Ensemble

jazzonia (by langston hughes)

it’s not what you remember,
it’s not what you can count on just one hand,
it’s not how you can fly the flag of definitive action,
or play the link in a chain reaction,
“i clocked you going 40 in a 30 mile zone.”
“officer, i’m sorry i’m so far away from home.”

it’s every inclination,
it’s every time you wanna stop and turn around.
it’s just how you can dive head first in a pool of water
without even giving just a single thought to
the monsters that lie waiting at the bottom of the pool,
like a child at the bus stop on his first day of school.

it’s how we say “let me out of here!”
but we don’t have the foggiest idea of what it means
to be left cold and slowly dying.
and the freezing man that i met tonight,
well he grabbed my wrist and he held it tight,
he said “soon you’ll sing your freedom song,
but come along into the alley first.
you look so young and i’m dying of thirst.”

sometime we’re bound to lose for our pretense and misdirection.
but if the whole world does come crashing down
who’ll bend their knees and kiss the ground with me?