Michael Anania

Poinciana

for Don Rose

 the Pershing Hotel was not
    on Pershing Road but on South
          Cottage Grove, and like so many
 
notable places in jazz, it no
     longer exists; in 1945, Bird was
        photographed at the door, his sax

in a blonde case, Von Freeman
    and his brothers, Dizzy, as well,      
        the flame trees Ahmad Jamal
        
fingered into blossom there,
    in 1958, that chill January night,
       chord by tropic chord, tremble still