Saturday, In Turn
ruby-throated, this morning’s hummingbird trembling at the yellow hibiscus, a cartoon quarter-note just played; Coltrane and Monk at the Five Spot, 1957, New York’s Ruby aflame and spinning past the subway stairs, Eighth Street, the city’s dank underground breath riffling her skirt, her high heels spiking the damp pavement, Shadow Wilson and Wilbur Ware, heel tap and the taut seams of her figured stockings, “My dear,” someone said, as though in passing, as much breath and touch as speech
