6.

BDFECA
7. (envoi) ECA or ACE

Her heels scuff the floor in three four time with the beat
And the gentleman across from her gives her a twirl and she gives a laugh.
The trumpets are blowing balloons, the saxes are blowing their nose,
and the trombone is. Well. Best leave him and his kind alone.
It’s crowded but lively in this establishment, and there was no window –
The growl in the singer’s voice sniffs around the place for a cranny to escape to, but no luck.

We’ve heard stories of a blues-playing gentleman who stepped on a crossroads and bent under
the weight of bad luck
Spent his whole life trying to stretch his pinkie away from his thumb and suddenly fingered the
beat.
I can’t imagine living in a house like that – a house with a little love, one window.
But I think he must’ve worked every minute of every day just to hope that she would laugh.
He left her and their kid alone.
Left them in a puff, right under her nose.

With only the briefest of kerfunkles, the owner kicked the musicians to the street and turned up
his nose.
The brass players and lonely string swuinted their eyes in the light of the sun and muttered about
luck.
One of them said, “Well, I just don’t understand why you all can’t keep well enough alone!”
But he immediately put his hands up at the wall of angry voices that answered up – smart to
avoid a beat.
But then from behind the door they heard a smoky laugh –
They saw a shape fill the window that was not a window.
The sax player helpfully said, “There’s something strange in that new window,”
And immediately held up his hands to his face to stop the barrage of slaps from connecting with
his nose.
There was nothing funny and there was only one laugh
And the musicians stopped their fighting and felt on their heels the bite of luck.
Gentlemen, gentlemen, gentlemen, said the figure to a three four beat in the window,
Let’s say we take this conversation somewhere we can be alone?

And though the musicians were smart enough to spit improv, they decided to follow smoke
alone.
Doors you walk through, but windows-
Well, their fingers certainly connected and twitched thesmleves into a new beat.
The smokey laugh they had followed transformed itself into a giant nose.
It sniffed them and blew and sneezed and suddenly they understood the cost of luck.
They stood stupid and cross eyed and the giant nose transformed once again into a laugh.

Five years on, and that gentlemen from before met them all down below with a smile and laugh.
“Well,” he drawled. “I see you decided to take a Rockstar life alone!”
“Was it worth it?” He stretched out his hand and laughed. “the luck?”
They sneezed and loudly complained about the heavy weight of the smoke trapped in the room
with no window.
The man who used to be a husband and was almost a father looked down his nose
And sighed and taught these former stars and vagabonds and musicians how to play the devil’s
beat.