Piece by piece, my small hands carefully fit together the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen, resurrecting “gold” from an old black case tucked behind dusty boxes in the storage shed. I could see myself in the flared bell, puffed cheeks, drowning in the huge mouthpiece. I wanted desperately to get sound out of that horn. He saw me and smiled a smile I didn’t understand, then. From the top of the basement stairs, hiding as if I'd snuck past an usher, I saw him play it only once. I heard his song—the dulling brass, the mildewed case.
Albert DeGenova is an award-winning writer and poet. He is the publisher and editor of After Hours magazine. DeGenova is also a blues saxophonist.