Texas Tessellation

Thomas Quitzau

August 29, 2021

Look into the kaleidoscope of jazz 

       and you will see America;

Step into the structured rhythms of swing 

       and you will find freedom reigning;

Stand in the middle of an ensemble 

       and solo failure’s optional.

As you rotate within the cylinder, 

       open fields hold life Escher-sketched

Stretched barbed wire, crisscrossed by high voltage lines— 

       lights flicker on the horizon,

Rain is showering us all, equally— 

       now it is pouring: cascading

Blurred dotted lines solid lines dividing— 

       nothing is clear, the sky’s hiding 

Lightning flashes, 18-wheeler sprays us;

       marvelous musics amaze us 

Crowding the rotation awaiting turns;

       cattle statues graze as clouds churn.

Thomas Quitzau is a poet and teacher who grew up in the Gulf Coast region and who worked for over 30 years in Houston, Texas. A survivor of Hurricane Harvey, he recently wrote a book entitled Reality Showers, and currently teaches and lives on Long Island, New York with his wife and children.