Erroll's "Percussionist"
I play Erroll Garner's music as the leaves tumble in the wind.
Outside, a man loses his hat in a "maelstrom" of tinier, persistent
Air.
I can hear the percussion of the man’s hard soled shoes on
the sidewalk and street as
he is in hot pursuit.
He seems like a man who is always chasing
"some-thing"…
In pursuit of this screwed up opportunity or that…
A woman with a paper shopping bag with broken straps stops
to watch him for a while, smiles with pity then
moves on.
The wind has made the street and sidewalk a
"keyboard" of sorts…
The hat and the man, fingers racing along.
Then, the wind lulls lighter, lightness itself,
as if some certain aspect of a complicated life song just sighed deep
into a piano's resonances then is completed…
The man retrieves his fedora, bows gratefully then heads home.
