Ellis Marsalis at Jazz Fest 2018

For Ellis

(1934–2020)

Nothing spontaneous

Nothing improvised

None of the necessary sounds in the streets

Places that should have paraded

Places that should have erupted, rest empty.

An absence weighs on the city.

(At home knowing Music Redeems

At home knowing Loved Ones or Joe Cool’s Blues or

The Ellis Marsalis Quintet Plays the Music of Ellis Marsalis)

The city of Ellis is restless 

At home knowing the need for a long dirge,

An endless second line.