IV

The singer Sarah Vaughan
saw Parker when he sat
on bus or train with scores.
They were Stravinsky ones
then when he came on stage
he’d play The Rite of Spring
or Firebird Suite to fans
but had a special way,
a way was all his own.

V

For Parker said he flipped
when first he came upon
Stravinsky's Firebird Suite
'That’s music at his best!'
then added to his list
'Sergei Prokofiev
Hindemith Ravel
Debussy Wagner Bach.'
In later years he said
that Bartok was his man.
As music is so rich
'What you hear depends
so much upon yourself.'
From thenceforth heard no jazz
when tuned to radio,
his focus classical.
His Confirmation brings
some Firebird elements
to incandescent blaze.

VI

In '50 Bird was back
in Europe once again
and Sweden was first stop.
When driving out from town
into a world of farms
a player said to him
that cows were musical
so Bird decided to
see if this were so
by joining up his horn
and have the driver move
closer to the curb
then entering a field
bowed to a bovine maid
as if he was a beau
requesting the next dance
and gave that ruminant
so calmly chewing cud
her taste of hottest jazz.