Hey, Jake!!
Pour me a shot and play me
some Billie Holiday

Play me
fifty-six minutes of
Billie Holiday
like the ad promised

Take me back on this
cold foggy night
to Harlem speakeasys
and a teenage girl
lost in her own voice

Spin an ingenue
with a lilt like a
shiny new penny
singing "April in Paris"

Play that rendition
of "Strange Fruit"
sweet with anger
and the woman hiding
track marks
fighting her way through
"Don’t Explain"

Tell me more and more
and then some
about how sad her life was

When you’re done,
play "Misty" for me
and fifteen minutes
of Nina Simone
the way Warhol would’ve liked

‘Cause everybody knows
about Mississippi Goddamn-

            except for us these days