Jazz Fox by Jo Young

 


 

Jo Young is a winner of the 2017 Ink Sweat &Tears/Café Writers Pamphlet Commission Competition and her first pamphlet ‘Firing Pins’ (November 2019) is published by IS&T Press. She lives in York with her young family and has served in the Army for over 20 years. Jo’s poetry has appeared in several anthologies and publications.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jazz Fox

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He’s a trill and a handful

of hemidemisemiquavers

his sly tresillo sisters dare him –

 

go glissando, go freestyle

go up and over walls and scale

bird fountains for drink,

live in a minor key,

always fierce and romantic.

 

Spaniels covet him as they press

on bifold doors and take guesses

at what wild chords wrap his heart.

 

Nightly, he shouts smoky

crescendos into serene

flowerbeds while he strings

 

his pricey coat and horn heavy

endnotes around the legs

of garden tables, folding-up

 

dark rhapsodies and posting them

through moistening windows 

into our tight, off-beat dreams.

 

 

Jo Young

 

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Poems