Walk Your Worries

When you're feeling down,so worn and wound, walk your worries through the rhythm of this city

surrender deeply to its symphony, the whir of tires skimming across rough pavement, the piercing horns of hurried cabs

let the music of the city's many murmurs swallow you so completely that you lay down your burdens

swim in the soup of a million strangers, their soulful cries, lascivious laughs intermingled with the ghosts of countless dreams, painfully beautiful

let the city carry you on its broad shoulders through the coolness of this night and it will cleanse you by the time your feet tire your troubles will be few

this night seems to stretch on forever but in the end morning always comes too soon.

~Eric Vance Walton~

The Green Mill (Chicago 8/19/2004)

We took the redline to Lawrence

and checked the world at the door

in the footsteps of all those before

who found solace in sax and

draped themselves in neon dreams

I must confess

how easily I acquiesced

to the Gresik groove

hundreds moved

as broad shoulders unloaded

some say this swing-style’s outmoded.

It don’t mean a thing

Brother, I felt the pulse

The heart’s still tickin’

after all these years

And I’m the first to say

That I’m blown away

If relics we are, I accept it

This hurried world, I reject it

As I go back in my mind

to a simpler time

learn a new step and perfect it.