Late Night Jazz

Wet streets outside the basement club
Reflect the beauty of the city lights
The stairway leads to the sound that lures me
To where cigar smoke and the scent of cheap liquor fill the air

High society sleeps as the black shoes and high heels
Click on the wood floors
Men in their best suits sit beside their dates
Prepared for music that will resonate in their souls

A mysterious gentleman twirls his partner
She glides back into his arms
Their infatuation moves them
Their drunken laughter keeps them smiling

I take a seat
Watching the bartender pour another martini
When sensations fill the air around me
Temptation pulls my mind deeper

The sax emulates a charming tenderness
The piano cries tears of loneliness
Drums narrate the general passion
We feel the music in our bodies

Spotlights heat the musicians
They light a fire on the rhythm
Duke Ellington’s shadow floats
Somewhere between heaven and jazz

While Lester Young’s soothing melody grows fainter
The drummer’s cymbals flutter lightly
And like the final tears shed over lost love
The piano plays its final notes

I’ve found new love in a song
My heart races in anticipation of another
I leave, my mind filled with music and my heart filled with delight
Melody escapes from an open door and gently kisses the rain-soaked sidewalks

I’ll return to the emotion seeping through fingertips
To the temptation that pulls my mind deeper
Because it’s like drinking wine in Paris
It’s late night jazz