Satchmo’s Smile Is Contagious

How many voices

did they silence

when through

voice alone,

they heal?

How they sang

through ancient wisdom

what time

would count

to kill?

When conspiracies

of silence

were the loudest

in the room

and the light

of dawn

stood just outside

like life beyond

the tomb?

How many voices

did they wrangle

from the spiraled

neck of sound

when it hung

between shoulders

and the head

was tilted

down?

What became

of all the music

that would

breathe through

steel and glass

that would glide

over the surface

like rides of

souped-up past?

And the sounds

that slowly penetrate

the pinkened flesh

within

like a

clever thought

that touches off

where muscles form

a grin.

And the grin

that crawled

into a smile

to stand

on teeth

again.

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