'Round Midnight

the elephant on the keyboard

all the way from Rocky Mount, North Carolina,

attacking pianos abruptly, enormous, weird

under moons, suits, hats and sunglasses;

eccentric behaviour, as always, being called

mental illness.      the pauses, the long

moments of silence and hesitation, the song

being too hard to follow, they say, dismissed

of going where liquor was served, no more

cabaret card, his car searched by the police

when he would still stop, stand up and dance

the hard-swinging music

of antipsychotics and lithium therapy;

and who would have thought

that the greatest elephant that ever lived,

depressed, schizophrenic, or simply good

would be one of the greatest composers 

that ever played, stroking the keys with gloom

and madness, 

untill the last stroke of darkness

came upon you as light as roses, straight,

no chaser, the longest pause of  February.