Watching Arturo Sandoval on PBS at 2 A.M.

Watching Arturo Sandoval on PBS at 2 A.M.

by Jonathan K Rice

There you are with your trumpet
in your hand fidgeting with the valves.

You talk of Cuba
of the old days with Dizzy

how much you loved Mahler
as a youngster.

Someone turned you on to be-bop
and you’ve been jazzing ever since.

I can’t sleep. I’m drinking wine
and eating nachos.

They cut to a studio. You blow
your horn with all your might.

I remember Mr. Cook, my band teacher
back in high school and how he threw

blackboard erasers at me when I missed
a note or came in late on a measure.

How I wish I listened. Oh, how
I wish I could play like you.


-refers to the phrase “out of the box” directly from Felicia Mitchell’s poem My Turn Out of the Box