Louis
Master of the pearly whites—teeth
Offense against the enemy, Defense against
The pain ….
Irrepressible Louie-man
MAN the operative word
Child/man at seven, fresh-dented coronet
Serious man, jubilant man
MAN the operative word
Wanted to be his real self
Wanted us to know his real self
His invincible, unconquerable real self
His straight man self
MAN the operative word
Later be singing riffs and jive talking, gapp’n
with his antonyms, ‘n synonyms in his ‘oth-er-man’ hand
MAN the operative word
Said he
Could always fall in the righteous groove, or—
Could beef on back with Duke—virtual dictionary
in his eyes-on-the-prize hand, pullin his ownself up
Irrepressible jazzman
MAN the operative word
Went through life a double-man
Wearing a Dunbar mask and soaring
a Dubois song strong in his head
“Pops” the irrepressible music man
MAN the operative word
A getting along, hear my song
Trying t’love the world man
A language man, creative with words
A two-fingered blip, he said
Reachin for the music hidden in his typewriter
Singing on the keys, this is Lou-is world
A writer, ax in hand
This jazzman, the
irrepressible Louis-man
Man the operative word
To finally triumph over the inhuman ways we become
human … this hu-ed manchild
From a south Dixie orphanage
Dented coronet in hand
tutored before he could escape
In southern survival styles
The only weapon they can’t take from you
is your smile, boy, smile boy ….
Become man the hard way, boy
with MAN, the operative word
The ultimate goal—y’prize:
The ability to choose
The power to make the final
substantive decisions
The accomplishment:
Mister LOU IS Armstrong!
Sweet Papa Dip—perfect rhythm, perfect pitch
America’s gift to the world
International Ambassador of Music
Irrepressible jazz man
MAN the operative word …
From Continuum: New and Selected Poems (Just Us Books, Inc., 2007 and 2014) by Mari Evans. Copyright © 2007 and 2014 by Mari Evans. Used with the permission of the Estate of Mari Evans.