Why Bill Evans Got Addicted to Junk

Mark Luebbers and Benjamin Goluboff

It wasn’t about living down Plainfield, N.J.
and all that square noise with his daddy.

It wasn’t to be down with the colored musicians,
or that nonsense about how it give a player touch.

Philly Joe Jones was not the Prince of Darkness
and Bill was not out there playing Faust.

Bill Evans got addicted to junk
for none of these reasons.

Bill Evans got addicted to junk
because junk is delightful.

It is post-bop, it is modal.
It is delightful.

Mark Luebbers teaches English at Cincinnati Country Day School,
Benjamin Goluboff at Lake Forest College. Sometimes they write
poems together. Three more of Mark's and Ben’s poems about jazz
pianist Bill Evans will appear this year in They Said: A Multigenre
Anthology of Contemporary Collaborative Writing from Black Lawrence
Press.