Sweet and Short

In an age of simplification,

I should keep this sweet and short.

Your phone may well proclaim your station,

but since it's sold, it must be bought.

So, tell us, please elucidate your thought.

They say you search for hidden things,

imagining what the future brings,

and what good poetry has wrought

(past tense and participle of “work,”

a struggle poets cannot shirk).

So what's the job of all that prose?

Might it be something no one knows?

What good is melody?

What good is music?

If it ain’t possessing something sweet

Now it ain’t the melody

And it ain’t the music

There’s something else that makes the song complete,

do wah, do wah, dow wah,

It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing.

*"It Don't Mean a Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing," title and lyrics Duke Ellington attributed to the trumpet and cornet player James Wesley "Bubber" Miley (1903–32).

Thursday, October 8, 2026