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New Groove
Brian C. Billings

The best way to learn your jazz is on the Net,
where no on-your-shoulder old lady makes you fret
about your freaky patterns and transitions.
You’re free to lay down your conditions
any way you like. Funky and flip and no regret . . .

like a teenager loose in his dad’s Corvette.
You’re lost in the funhouse with every set
some solid player uploads for your ambitions.
Variety provides a wider sort of alphabet.

You pick up the measure of grit and sweat.
Style becomes your burning cigarette,
smoking off into a ceiling of petitions
to the stream of needle-dropped musicians.
Each riff you throw is a channeled tête-à-tête.
The best way to learn your jazz is on the Net.

—
Brian C. Billings is a professor of English and drama at Texas A&M University-Texarkana, where he also serves as the editor-in-chief for Aquila Review. His poems have appeared in Abandoned Mine, Ancient Paths, Argestes, The Bluebird Word, Confrontation, Evening Street Review, and The Woven Tale Press.

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