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
