Ellington Plays On
“Money Jungle” this song is called. Now there’s a
piano stabbing my heart. Has he chosen betrayal? Does
he want it to end — the war and the peace? But
it’s so good in peacetime. It’s like
nothing so sweet. No, nothing sweeter ever
coursed through this name-and-form, nothing
sweeter, nothing sweeter.

So late, and he’s out still, punishing me. Prepare
yourself, woman — it may be a long pain.

Duke has it all in one hand, this tune. He has
to be here in the morning, doesn’t he? My
heart is tearing up like a wet white rose.
In Virginia
In Virginia I went in the woods
under barbed wire, down the logging
road and hung my jacket on a fence.
                                    Took the right
fork through high grass that wet
my shoes & legs & thought I’d die of
joy this morning and have great
grassy joy the rest of my
hundred years.

In Virginia I sit on an old falling-
apart swing, look at Short Hills Mtn. &
associated fields. The sun shines bright.
What else could be wanted by city
skin. This is the long end of time.