Allen Jaffe

Cy DILLON

ALLEN JAFFE, DEAD AT 59

We envied you then
Even after hearing the old black men in white shirts
Cough into the whiteness of linen handkerchiefs
Time and time again

You drove them here on tour
Through the towns that booked
Bands whose names were new to us
Preservation Hall you called it
And we wondered how you preserved
The flicker of life in those tired faces
Or we did until they began to play
We who had never heard the real thing

Nothing could have been more real
There in the old chapel
Where the stars and bars obstinately waved
Still above the boys at New Market
A picture of the future sacrificed to the past

How could you play there
Under that flag and those circumstances
How could you dance for joy
Sousaphone and all
Doing a soft shoe along the bass line
Laughing at the irony of bringing real heroes to VMI
Playing both the present and the past like a virtuoso

We envied you and we loved them
Lightly as they bore their power
They did more than our gods
Like discipline or revolution, patriotism or knowledge
Moved us more in two hours than we'd moved in a lifetime
Toward each other

And in the end you led us
Radicals and Keydets, professors and police
As we danced among the hardwood pews
Filled with a spirit more holy than we knew
Loving the dance the music and each other
Artists with you
Drawing the face of time

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