Friday the 13th*
WOR studios 1953 thelonious Monk/Sonny Rollins
sloop-de-sloop whirl wind full intake reed fill throat
splash slippery slant
peek-a-boo inebriate peregrinate in-
cubate square spiral boulder-roll stroll crab colossal
hi-hat crisp
chink snap crystalclarioncrystalline bosomy
broth ivories wrought
bath breadload beatitude concuss allude
wedge hook link
sinkseepagelodge
clump stump flummery block lump here
come de Monk scruff scamper liv-
ery lurch paint a birch fu-
rl fistful conflagrate agitate French horn ― fog-caster, frog-hopper ― conflate titillate aerate levitate brindle lop Bird-bop
whisk brisk bask peculiar challenge the ruler
adumbrate gestate
spray a mandate
, man
*This poem hinges to the Monk tune “Friday the 13th.”
Heller Levinson (https://sulfur-surrealist-jungle.com/2024/02/27/the-wild-poetics-of-questioning-in-heller-levinsons-work-by-mohsen-el-belasy/) lives in the lower Hudson Valley. His most recent books are Query Caboodle, Shift Gristle (Black Widow Press), and The Abyssal Recitations (Concrete Mist Press). Valvular Ash is slated for a spring, 2024 publication (BWP). His book, Lure, won the 2022 Big Other Poetry Book Award.
Come see Heller read on day two of the Welcome to Boog City 18 Arts Festival on Sat. Sept. 21 at 1:40 p.m. at Block Hill Station in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Details here:
https://wordpress.boogcity.com/2024/09/05/welcome-to-boog-city-18-arts-festival-day-2/