Billy Strayhorn, Ohio Was Just a Terrible Dream

Rest now. It was never real.

The factories are nothing more

than the mouths of horns. You dreamed

the man in the doorway. The slap

of his belt is an upright

bass. And what you took to be your

brother hanging in the cellar

is just a lady dancing. Let her

sway. The miners passing don’t know

your name, and they themselves

are just rhythm. Ohio,

some fool left staring at the bar.

“Billy Strayhorn, Ohio Was Just a Terrible Dream” is reprinted fromThe Last Time I saw Amelia Earhart (Persea Books, 2005).