Connie Johnson

A Fan’s Response to Blossom Dearie

I’m startled by her coyness. I wonder if she’s pulling my leg.
The more I listen, the more I develop a taste for cigarettes
and dry martinis. I take the 15 steps at the Village Vanguard
down into a world of Persol sunglasses, shady dreams and

bebop vocabulary. I may have told a snippy waitress that
not even Bird could teach her to fly, but that was out of character.
My aloneness is amplified: liquor and smokes, a 123-person-capacity.
That’s enough elbow room for anyone!  I’m not a pianist, so I reserve

the right to change my opinion but some have me pegged
as a jazz sophisticate due to my penchant for fourths in chord-voicings.
That could be an over-reach!  Forgive me for all that I said about technique
not being everything. Forgive me for claiming ties to the Divine One

in an endeavor to mooch Lucky Strikes and drinks at the bar. 
And most of all when Blossom Dearie sings “I wish you love…”
forgive me for all the times I refused
to take her at her word.  

Listen:
Blossom Dearie, I Wish You Love

Connie Johnson is a Pushcart Prize-nominated writer from Los Angeles, CA whose poetry has appeared or is forthcoming in The Muleskinner Journal, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, Cacti Fur, The Rye Whiskey Review, Sheila Na-Gig, Gargoyle, The Big Windows Review, and Syncopation Literary Journal. Everything is Distant Now (Blue Horse Press) is her debut poetry collection; In a Place of Dreams, her digital album/chapbook, was published by Jerry Jazz Musician.