a child of highway and wine
     still doing what I did
decades ago. Jazz and the sad memento
     following me through town and hamlet
city and scape. Monk’s mood and Trane
     blowin’ by the riverside – finding the notes
coursing the curves. The sun in the East, then West
     rising, falling like love itself
bridges, streams – the four way stop.
     She tailgates w/lipstick. Monk approves,
Trane bops free – rising, falling,
     like love itself
Always in the foreground, back – always on
     the downbeat, sixteenth, whole rest,
left signal, right – like love itself
     particular, pesky. Of wayward origin
and design. Stick figure shadows
     dance en masse. Post road, turnpikes
thirty-two bars, and out.

Mike Jurkovic is a 2016 Pushcart nominee, poetry and musical criticism have appeared in over 500 magazines and periodicals but have generated no reportable income. Full length collections, smitten by harpies & shiny banjo catfish (Lion Autumn Press, 2016) Chapbooks, Eve’s Venom (Post Traumatic Press, 2014) Purgatory Road (Pudding House Press, 2010) blue fan whirring, a collection of haiku & short poems, due from Nirala Press, 2017. Anthologies: WaterWrites & Riverine (Codhill Press, 2009, 2007) Will Work For Peace (Zeropanik, 1999). President, Calling All Poets, New Paltz, NY. Music features, interviews & CD reviews appear in All About Jazz (July 2017 – ) & the Van Wyck Gazette.

He loves Emily most of all. www.mikejurkovic.com