Body and Soul*

The mellow sound
of his alto sax
suffuses
the pedestrian mall
with the echo
of a gentler
time.

Several older listeners
think of Charlie Parker,
of Stan Getz,
and of the magical freedom
jazz bestows
on the human
soul.

His worn Stetson
accepted the tribute
of coins
that could not begin
to feed the hunger
behind
his scarred arms.

He plays
as though his spirit
was aflame,
the difficulty of his
methadone treatment
and his worsening Hep C
forgotten.

He smiles
as several of his listeners
break into applause,
just before
tone-deaf Mall Security
roughly tells him
to move along.

* “Body and Soul” is the title of a recording made in 1939 by Coleman Hawkins that became THE model for later jazz solos on all instruments.