“Graduation 2022 No. 1” © Bonnie Matthews Brock
Under Layers of Smoke and Dreams
He now stands tall for the ballad,
Playing his love-faded brass with power,
Leaning back in fortitude, the beast too strong to cower,
Under the dim lights, busted chops in his final hours.
No one in the crowd is known, for everyone wants to be mysterious,
deep
To the man who comforts them with his way and tone, who for vibe
sacrifices sleep
With passion in his heart, he kneels down as he plays on his own,
With his whole band beside him to start, he plays for himself as if he’s
all alone.
From the door to the stage, there’s no glimpse of opportunity or light,
In the bar where he lives, there is no change of day and night.
The soulful notes with morose smoke fly gracefully into the night,
And he dreams to do the same as he plays his last measures and makes
a vow that in another life he might.
Allyson Kling is a university student from Bucks County, PA. She spends most of her free time consuming and producing art, whether that means listening to music, reading novels, tearing up over insane harmonies, playing percussion instruments, or writing in her sticker-covered notebooks. She is currently a self-identified “jack of all trades, master of none,” and is currently working to become a “jack of all trades, master of maybe one or two.” That would be sick.
Bonnie Matthews Brock is a Florida-based photographer, as well a school psychologist. She loves hiking the urban and woodland trails of “anywhere” (and pausing often to shoot photos) with her very patient husband (and often collaborator), Ted. Her images have been featured on the covers of magazines such as Ibbetson Street, Wild Roof Journal, Poesy Magazine, Humana Obscura, and Arkansas Review; as well as on the pages of publications such as Oddball Magazine, Ember Chasm Review, Beyond Words Literary Magazine, Beaver Magazine, and Lateral. Her works are archived at institutions such as Poets House NYC, Brown University, and Harvard University.
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