Coltrane

by Ryan Bermuda

The psalmist speaks

            Avant

Altissimo

Raised by miles and monks, fashioning

  giant steps

   toward Birdland

Good Bye Naima

       Chops the track

to the wheel

Black bellows blow, the gospel of

  Saint John-

   A Love Supreme

Lineage

by Ryan Bermuda

Consider this child

shaded dark and comely

hums like the presence of dusk

clarion cries burst from timber bed

charging an audience of stars

for generations to consider

this child of oak and bone

of begetter and ghost

birthed in unison

turns lorn faces

to kith in kiln

impressions

of father’s

and son’s

prints

mark

our

pa

lm

s