Charles Talkoff
As if America had a Jukebox Smile
Jack Kerouac and Lester Young in a taxi 1943 on their way from the Village up to Minton's Lester offers Jack tea and the lambent Roman candles light up the night cafe in dangerous yellow electric green and harmony red the seconds like hours like pistons running an impossible machine the pulsing blue dream of isn't it pretty to think so as if America had a jukebox smile Lester on his way to hard labor and Jack on his way to Florida.
Bio
Charles Talkoff's poems, short stories and art work have appeared in, JMWW, 3QR, The Urbanite, Rumble Fish, Visions International, Dime Show Review, Collective Unrest, The Pangolin Review, The Scarlet Leaf Review, Boomer Lit, Dream Noir, After Hours, Underground Voices, The Midway Journal and other magazines. He lives in Chicago.