Take four steps left & four
steps right, my daughter sings
as she draws her new
dance on the wall’s white
board—bluegrass to blame
for it all: the house concert
last night, the buzzing
of the twelve-string
as she nuzzled into the camp
chair beneath the star-plucked
desert sky. Playing
the album this evening—
its fluid harmonica & slide
guitar—she sings do-si-do
followed by slide left &
slide right, two steps each
as she glides to the final
do-si-do of the dance
called Jazz Square. After
the banjo gives way
to clarinet & after
my daughter gives way
to acoustic folk & then
to the sweet & solemn blues
she knows at once
she’s always known,
a cool brass horn rolls
out the gelled moon—
bees humming in their dark hives,
owls swinging their bass
pendulums from the rooftops,
coyotes singing wild jazz
from the box canyons
of the intoxicating night.
Simmons B. Buntin is the founding editor of Terrain.org: A Journal of the Built & Natural Environments. His first book of poetry, Riverfall, was published in 2005 by Ireland’s Salmon Poetry; his next collection, Bloom, is due from Salmon in late 2010. Recent work has appeared in Mid-American Review, Isotope, Orion, Hawk & Handsaw, and Southwestern American Literature. Look for new work in High Desert Journal, ISLE, Freshwater, Spiral Orb, Salamander, and Versal. Catch up with him at www.SimmonsBuntin.com.
