artwork: ralph murre
Do you
know what it means to miss New Orleans
by Albert DeGenova
Downstairs my son plays boogie woogie
Professor Longhair Dr. John
New Orleans-style stride piano.
It is Mardi Gras week.
He’s practicing for those
Fat Tuesday parties.
His foot stomps on the floor,
vibrates through the walls and up
to my desk. My head sways in time
to the rhythmic pulsing of his left
hand
the dizzying parade of his right
sends serious thought into a funky
pirouette
puts a smile on my face a reminder
of that old bouncing gait, of Bloody
Marys
and Hurricanes mixed with rum and
trumpets
and street dancers with bottle-cap taps
on their shoes
a reminder of what this kind of blues
can do
to a Dad who knows his son knows
nothing
of Lenten sadness, only the joy of
dancing,
a Dad who knows his own success
through the songs his son chooses to
play –
Big Chief, Stagger Lee,
Tippy Tina,
Laissez les bons temps
rouler!
~ first published in The Blueing Hours (Virtual Artists
Collective)
