Kind of Blue

It’s Evans’ lyrical appeal that shines
through Kind of Blue, connects the dots from Miles
to Rachmaninov, the classical, as styles
are mixed where Cannonball and Trane post signs
to 1959, to Mingus. Bill,
not Gil, when he met Miles, dropped inside
a hole in history, a chance to ride
the far end, settle in to light and fill
and fiddle with the picture. This he did
behind the scene, where Miles Davis bid
the fire come temptation. When I hear
him now, he’s sprawled across the floor that squeaked,
a helix, coding sound where Miles peaked
and cracked the intellectual veneer.