by Mireya Perez Bustillo
…………………………………To Max Roach
…………Max the last bebopper
Dizzy, Charlie, Bud all those cats gone on
Dizzy had warned you to stay put
if that heavenly trumpeter Gabriel
wanted you for his band
digging the ringing tone of a “ride” cymbal
to keep the basic beat
using the bass drum for accents
In spite of eulogies, musical tributes,
videos, photographs of you in that
church where Martin had spoken for peace
all said you were gone
I even saw your body carried out
the tape playing you for the recessional
I did not believe it
until
I walked up front to the altar rail
and to the left faced your black stool
the drumsticks on top, the stilled cymbals
on a black-draped pedestal
and heard your hands a prayer echoing
Gabriel’s beckoning
trumpet
Mireya Perez Bustillo: Mireya’s poems invoke a powerful array of spirits. Her poetry appears in Caribbean Review, IRP Voices, Anthology of Colombian Women Poets, among others.