Sonnets From Other Lives: Virg

He’d kept up with the horn long after high school
jazz band--not well mind you--but still playing--
mostly for himself--laying out cool
lines of lazy blues. So watch him swaying
to Bird who’s ripping up his radio
as the old car rumbles through the prairie night--
grooving on the way the man can go
into time itself & somehow fight
his way back out again alive (Bird Lives!)
He’ll need own that record just to hear
the song over & over ‘til it gives
up a few good secrets & his ear
can lead him to the Bird that he can be
(minus all that virtuosity