Roxanne’s Room

for D.H.

It's the 50s. I'm eleven. I'm in Roxanne's room.
There's a blue phonograph by a westward-facing window.
It's late autumn, late afternoon, the sun is shining.
Roxanne puts on a record.
I hear castanets, a guitar,
the sounds of someplace far away,
where I have never been. 
Out of a blur of sound comes a trumpet, rising
in defiance of my little life.
In 1966, I buy my first record.
Miles Davis, Sketches of Spain.
When I play it, out come castanets, a guitar,
the sounds of someplace far away,
where I have never been.
Out of a blur of sound comes a trumpet, rising
in celebration of my little life.
I'm seventy. I have cancer. I'm dying.
I put on “Concierto de Aranjuez,"
and it's the 50s. I'm eleven.
I'm in Roxanne's room
listening to her blue phonograph.
I hear castanets, a guitar,
the sounds of someplace far away,
a place where I am going.
It’s late autumn, late afternoon, the sun is shining.

Lyn Coffin is a widely-published poet, fiction writer, playwright and translator. Her translation of Rustaveli’s The Knight in the Panther Skin won Georgia's (the country) SABA Prize.