Charles Mingus

His music is bass purple.
When the daisy-white piano and scarlet king trumpet
have had their say

a four-beat silence
then a single thrum
a deep soft boom
a star of clematis in a shadowy corner
another, and another
each note a purple spark

Now the solo break
a drift of crocuses in sun
a drift of meteorites by night
purple fires in the upper air.

He must have walked
by the colour purple in a field somewhere
and noticed it.