S.O.B. Sonnet XXIII

Mingus, a musical mystic

dead in Mexico in ’79

@ 56. He burned

clean through

& the day they burned his remains

56 whales beached themselves

on the Mexican coast

& there THEY burned.

Burning whale fat

in the Mexican sun.

Fat smoke filled the

Mexican air & Charlie’s

ashes painted the Ganges a shade

of blue it will NEVER see again.