HARLEM BLUES

Dear friends. Being a lover of Jazz music, few years back when composing the

'Story of Jazz Music in Verse', I took a break to compose this fictitious poem.

Hope you like it.

            HARLEM BLUES 

Lingering perfume floats through the night air.

Life was a drudgery for him and no one cared.

With neon lights burning and flashing everywhere.

The jazz band in the saloon played a soft tune.

While the the lady sang the Blues and gently crooned.

The solitude of the night gets to him.

As he drops down on the corner seat where the lights

are a bit dim.

Signals the waiter as he lights his cigar.

Orders a double whiskey and soda having come so far.

He remains enthralled by crooners voice.

He must spend the blue night all alone since he had no

other choice.

The crooner now comes pretty close to him.

He could see her white teeth dazzle and gleam.

But when he looks into her dark eyelashes, -

Sad memories before his eyes flashes!

He had once been a clarinet player of some renown.

But his wife cold not tolerate its piping sound!

His habit of playing the pipe during midnight hours.

Made her to abandon him for their marriage had gone

sour!

The blue song in the saloon soon comes to an end.

But the music goes on simply to entertain.

The singer now invites him to her room.

He accompanies her trying to forget his loneliness 

and gloom.

She pours out two drinks in her first floor room.

Gently places his head between her bosom, -

making him to swoon! 

The blue note still echoes in his mind.

It is then when she pulls out a clarinet from behind!

Seeing him surprised she laughs out loud.

He stare at the clarinet with misgiving and doubt!

"Don't worry darling I had met your wife.

She had shown me your photograph and told me

about your life.

From my childhood days I loved the clarinet.

It turns me on before I go to bed!

So play the pipe gently as I get into my slip-on,

And we shall make love till the morn!"

So he picked up the pipe and played it so gently and

so light.

The music echoed through the lonely Harlem night.....!

                                                   - By Raj Nandy