all that jazz - a jazz poem by Menzi Maseko

I am reciting a jazz poem
over the heads of these shining bright youths
something about Milestones
Miles Ahead
of Maiden Voyages and Duke
nothing extra special
no hidden meanings
and no immortal truths
but the poem takes me over
and so i scat, rave and behave
as if i am ascending
like Coltrane
Ibrahim
or Mseleku
or like Taiwa Molelekwa
descending into tearless pain
like St John in his Africa Brass Suite

but what good is a song without a message?
and what's it all about anyway?
its jazz gone ultra-vox
like Herbie Hancock's robots in Rockit
issuing through my voice box
but why?

because jazz is elagant, pretty unpretty
political, suicidal
incidental
phenomenal and best of all
jazz rocks
and pushes your head out of that box
making us take notice
of nothingness
and the foolishness of trying to sell something
just hear it in Sipho Gumede's tune
Chickens Today, Feather Dusters Tomorrow