"does your house have lions?"

 (for rahasaan)

and, especially,

may the ghost of rahasaan

roland kirk visit you in your dreams tonight

like he visits me on occasion

and may he ask you to your face:

            "does your house have lions?"

and may you answer in the affirmative,

may you sing out in the affirmative,

may you scream in the affirmative!

all the while his tenor sax

honking and honking and honking,

making great, brave jazz love,

jazz love symphonies of pain and delight,

of knowing and not knowing,

out over the great lakes,

out over the great plains,

out over the great cities

of sweetness we all inhabit,

you know we do,

you know we do.

amen.

 copyright dougie padilla 2021