Member-only story
dreamy blues…
of duke ellington’s ‘mood indigo’
(for barney bigard, arthur whetsol & lawrence brown)
you ain’t been blue . . . til you’ve
had that mood indigo . . .
— Ellington/Mills
a young girl is somewhere waiting on
the boy she loves; she has seen him
every day for the last five years but
today he will not come.
an old man is down by a river
standing at the spot where he
saw his only son drown.
a woman who never knew her
mother but knew her mother did
not love her is somewhere walking the
streets.
i travel to all these places,
long to capture that which
seems to be our shadow,
swells with absurdity
recalls jobs we can’t have
hotels we can’t enter
restaurants which show us doors
instead of menus.
ours is a deep dyed emotion;
marching bands
ragtimers
banjo pickers
barrelhouse ballers
dangerous dance halls…
