Billie Holiday, Lady Day.
April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959
April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959
Palm pain calls the body’s fox-plump landscape,
henna to pink noon from stunning pattern.
In the great hour of her face, moods unfold
each in her feud with the darkening air.
Lame bride sings kisses, blows hair-hook affair
in her flaming fastbacks with our fivefold.
Shimmer the pain with the lover’s iron
shavings of firelit airwaves and escape.
City country. In the morning Harlem
ginger leaves, bends to the window. Sliding
fold out. “Stop right there.” A mountain, a drum
on the radio, Lady Day singing:
“If you let me love you a fool would say.
It’s for sure that I’m going — all the way.”
