Frank

Frank Reuben Jackson (bio) like god or miles, no second name is needed. as opposed to ”reservation for sinatra; party of 37. can I get a last name, for the maitre’d, you understand.” the heart needs no such pretense when “in the wee small hours” plays, its longing unpretentious and haunting as moonlight. a 32 bar ashram; peace from a boy from Hoboken if he was an asskicker, so be it. I think of the brilliant brown voices of my youth; [End Page 336] they too needed protection, and nights when the angels needed rest. I dared not replace his albums in stores where my face is familiar —because my love for his sound is as personal as stretchmarks surrounding my ribcage like rings on a tree old enough to remember “all the things you are” Reuben Jackson Reuben Jackson works as an archivist with the Smithsonian’s Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald Collections. His first book of poems entitled Fingering the Keys won the 1992 Columbia Book Award. Copyright © 1999 Charles H. Rowell

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