About Flyin’ Home

What would you say to yourself
if you had to lay on your back
hold up the horn
& play 99 courses of
a tune called Flyin’ Home
exactly as you recorded it
55 years ago
& what would you think
if you woke up in the afternoon
& your head was still spinning with
voices shouting
Flyin’ Home blow Flyin’ Home
& what would you do
if someone whispered in your ear
hug me kiss me anything
but please don’t play Flyin’ Home
& what if a customer said:
tonight I’m having sex with
a person who has been up
in a flying saucer
so please funk me down good with Flyin’ Home
& what would you think
if someone started singing
Yankee Doodle Dandy
in the middle of your solo on Flyin’ Home
& what if you had to enter
all the contaminated areas in the world
just to perform your infectious version of
Flyin’ Home
& what if you saw yourself
looking like a madman
with a smashed horn
walking backward on a subway platform
after 50 years of blowing Flyin’ Home
& what would you think to yourself
if you had to play Flyin’ Home
when you didn’t have
a home to fly to
& what if Flyin’ Home became
your boogie woogie social security check
your oldie but goodie way out of retirement
& was more valuable than you
I mean somewhere
in advance of nowhere
you are in here
after being out there
Flyin’ Home