“Juke Joint” by Janie McGee
stepping smooth across rocks and rye
drinking the wood grain from planks
soaked with jazz hunched and swaying
on stilts in the muddy red clay of Jim Crow
wringing blues from a shantytown sax
pearled with sharecropper calluses
moist with the heat of a Saturday night
every teardrop shaped note that escaped
the tin roof made magnolia tree blossoms
hang heavy with redolent sweating sweet
shame of their pink and white bystander guilt
(originally posted December 2013)
Poesy plus Polemics 
Yes, yes, yes
LikeLike
glad it worked for you
LikeLike
awesome painting
LikeLike
it was the first one I found when searching for images
LikeLike
really nice !
LikeLike
What an interesting way with words! Paul, this one is really beautiful. Especially the last lines!
LikeLike
that means quite a lot to me
LikeLike
Your poetry is very refreshing.
LikeLike
Old Jim Crow’s ghost still lives in the South despite the ‘repeal’. Great description in this one.
LikeLike
thank you kindly, Johnny
LikeLike
reminds me of my favorite author Zora Neale Hurston and her folklore regarding the town in Florida she was from (Eatonville, I think)…great imagery!!!
LikeLike
what a wonderful comment – thank you
LikeLike
You truly write us a painting, Paul–no need for complimentary image. Fabuloso
LikeLike
it’s how I compensate, I suppose, for an inability to paint on canvas
LikeLike
I know the feeling–paint by numbers is my speed, though I don’t have the patience for them anymore; poems go quicker.
LikeLike
Damn! This poem is “mouth watering” soaked with jazz.. 🙂 Beautiful…
LikeLike
I thank you most kindly
LikeLike
🙂
LikeLike
Reblogged this on Poesy plus Polemics.
LikeLike
Magnificent.
LikeLike
conjures up a time and place when joy was hell bent on defeating the pain
LikeLike
Marvelous!
LikeLike
glad you liked it
LikeLiked by 1 person
Reblogged this on OUR POETRY CORNER.
LikeLike
thank you for sharing my poem with your readers
LikeLike
Amazing piece Paul 🙂 bravo!!!!
LikeLike
much appreciated
LikeLike
Where do you get these beautiful paintings?
LikeLike
I have a bit of fun searching the net for complementary images
LikeLike
Well, let me know of any particular sites you visit 🙂 Thanks!
LikeLike
Excellent, especially the magnolia metaphor.
LikeLiked by 1 person
much appreciated
LikeLike
I grew up in Mississippi during Jim Crow. Your images bring back memories – pearled share cropper calluses, wood-grain alcohol (moonshine) and magnolia blossoms. I cringe.
LikeLiked by 1 person
we all own some historic share of an institutional guilt
LikeLiked by 1 person