Brass soldiers line up
and pitch to his tune.
Piano man rules the room.
Hot, not sweet,
the band chases the beat.
Strings of guitars
slice the air into bars
and a velvety sax
swings for a splash
while drums punch a groove,
cymbals ride crash.
Bones blare the blues
as these Vikings of swing,
in tux suits of noir,
embellish and round
the sound that winds down,
then swells,
slams to the ground.

Julie is from St. Louis and moved to Titusville, Florida in 1964 because her father worked on the space program. She has lived in Richmond, VA since 1975 and is now retired after having paid her debt to society by working over 30 years in IT. She has had poetry and flash fiction published online and in print in Bacopa, Parentheses, Unmasked Anthology, and in Shanghai Literary Review.