The Saxophone Man

The saxophone man

Came to town

And stood outside my window

Playing his sax

I crept under my bed

And hid there

Because I could see the lights

Going on

Up and down the street

I didn’t know

What the saxophone man

Would do

If he didn’t see my light go on

Did he know

That I couldn’t hear his music?

Did he know

That his spell

Wouldn’t enchant me?

Did he know

Exactly how many

Boys and girls

Lived in the little town

By the big, big river?

After a hundred

Long breaths

In and out

I crawled back

To the window

And looked down

The streets were lined

With children

I knew from school

Walking, single file

Like we had been taught to do

If there was a fire

Or emergency

Now there was an emergency

But the single file order

Was only helping it along

We had been taught

Not to speak up

Not to interrupt

Not to make a fuss

And so all the children

Got up, out of their beds

Walked downstairs
Opened front doors

And followed the man

Playing his saxophone

Their parents couldn’t hear it

The sound of the reed

It had nothing to do with its magic

It was only to do with

The way grown-ups sleep

Deeper, and with darker dreams

Always thinking

That the worst of their nightmares

Would make it a joy to wake

But tomorrow morning

They would wake to empty beds

In the rooms their children slept in

The nightmares have no music
Only the thrum of a heartbeat

Staying steady

A heart can keep the tempo

But that night

The adults of the town

Would find their heartbeats synchronized

To the music of their children

Being led far away

Years later

When I had my own child

He would sign to me

And ask me

To tell him the story

Of the saxophone man

Who visited the town

By the big, big river

And took away all its children

For no reason

Other than he wanted to play

And the adults of the town told him

That his music

Wasn’t welcome there

They liked organs

Church organs

And violins

For fancy concerts

Nothing about a saxophone

Made them comfortable

And so they told the saxophone man

He had to leave

They wouldn’t let him

Stand on his street corner

And serenade them

And so his last song

Was his best yet

A song that ended

In the deepest part

Of the big, big river

A song so beautiful

There was no choice

But to wade, wade, wade

Into that unfriendly water

People on the other side

Of the river

Said they heard the music

And shut their windows

And locked their doors

They made their children

Promise

Not to listen

But the children

Clawed at the doors

Until they had to be

Locked in attics

And in basements

When they were finally let out

They kept humming that song

And they never stopped

You can see something

And forget it

You can taste

The most delicious meal

In the world

And lose the details of it

A day later

But a song you hear

And love

Can never really

Go away

It marches through your mind

Single file

In a circle

Being played

Over

And over

Again