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THELONIOUS MONK : Pannonica

Nica, moth's-child,

Wed a Baron

Who strove in 1942 against Vichy ;

Herself worked

In Free France for de Gaulle.

Met Monk

At the Salon and may

Have strayed

Into his blind arms.

Ate it when

Busted with him for tea. Oh, baby.

Light, please,

And we will sure unbuild the dame.

Bird brothe his last in her hotel suite!

The light broke

Out of Bird, dangerously, flammably,

Over the sheets,

At the Stanhope rooms.

Little else ever

Spoke. Cigarettes and silent dreams.

We took the streetcar in San Francisco

And saw Spencer Tracy as a detective,

All afternoon I was drunk as hell.

There was a flash of lightning

And the bay went blue and I thought

I saw the white body of a whale.

You held my arm.

At night there was more brandy

And the soft motion of hands, soft,

Motion of hands over a glockenspiel.