In 2024 Creative Writing collaborated with Jazz to create a multi-media performance. Jazz students Cooper Belletto, Akeel Haroon, Bella Meese, Lawrence Rawlins, Nigel Valle, Rehaan Rouege, and Reginald Williams responded to student poems with original music. Included below is a recording of “An Ode to All the Colorful Funerals” from one of these collaborative performances.
Thrown between time
And Where The
Sidewalk Ends.
To all the colorful funerals
That celebrate
All the words
Spoken between
Life and death because
“The End” is
Just as important
As the first
Line.
To all the colorful funerals
Where everyone
Confuses their laughter
For breath.
To all the colorful funerals
With girls in bright dresses whose
Hands are cupped
To their mouths to amplify
The sounds of their grief,
Because a funeral is not only
Allowed to be silent, they’ve
Heard the
Thundering beat of a
Second line and seen the
Beauty in shared grief.
An Ode to all the colorful funerals
I’ve been to
And all the colorful girls
They were for.
The world is quiet tonight.
The propellers and engines
Have left, leaving only the
Cacophonous trill of cicadas.
The dull glow of the moon
Reflects in my eyes; they
Shine like a mirror
Or a flash of lightning.
My skin is a gemstone,
Cut sharp and ragged
And valuable.
My muscles are a delicacy
In the streets of the city.
My smile is hidden, all
teeth, no warmth, under the
Protection of the water.
I watch the earth
And wait.
I am always lying in wait,
For it all to end.
