My Dad and the Duke

Listening to the Duke
on my IPod the other day
my dad came to mind.

I imagined him dancing to Duke
and his orchestra.
Mabye at the Aragon in Chicago.
Possible steamy,
much like today.

I see my dad dancing
smiling and laughing
as his young body
shook and glided through the haze
of cigarette smoke and humid Chicago.

That’s in my mind.
But I recall seeing my dad dance.
just once.
At my brother’s wedding.
I’d always thought he was
very clumsy
and not an athlete.
Usually sitting around
and smoking himself towards the emphysema that killed him
twenty years later.

But that nigtht
he danced with my mom.
They were recently divorced.
But they still made quite a couple.
My mom had a look of surprise on her face.
My dad a look of joy and confidence
I’d never seen before.

As Duke himself used to say: “If it feels good,
it is good.


8-22-08