Witness

¹wit·ness

noun \ˈwit-nəs\

1 : attestation of a fact or event : testimony

2 : one that gives evidence; specifically : one who testifies in a cause or before a judicial tribunal

3 : one asked to be present at a transaction so as to be able to testify to its having taken place

4 : one who has personal knowledge of something

5a : something serving as evidence or proof : sign b : public affirmation by word or example of usually religious faith or conviction <the heroic witness to divine life — Pilot>

I would like you to sound like Dinah Washington.

                 I could sound like Spokane, Washington.

I would like you to sound like Dinah Washington.

Hell, I'd like me to sound like Dinah Washington.

But I've got a better shot at Spokane.

I've got the best shot at California, actually--

northern that is. 

Southern isn't my game.

But come, let's talk Bay Area,

where chronic is legal

         (if you're chronically ill)

and the Golden State Warriors

only bring home the gold 

about once every three generations.

Come a little closer, to my hometown, San 

Jose, my personal patron saint of

priuses, poppies, PCs, potstickers (5 for a dollar, tofu 50 cents extra), 107.7 The Bone,

and a cult-like obsession with Trader Joe's Oreos.

I could sound like San Jose, California.

If you asked for my attestation, my affirmation,

my narrative--

If you asked me to be a 

witness for San Jose,

to use my voice to represent its story,

here is what I would sound like:

        Plant apricot seeds.

        Wait seventy years.

        Watch as bright green seedlings blossom into

        computer chips and silicon,

        proving that money does, 

        in fact,

        grow on trees.

You hear it?

I could sound just like San Jose, California.

But could I ever sound like Dinah Washington?

Could I ever master--
no, could I even truly comprehend
the texture and tone of her testimony,
the ease and emotion of her evidence?
Could I ever witness her
sights
aromas
sounds
flavors
enough to serve as her witness?
To serve as
her?


And what of Jay-Z,  Billie Holiday,  Monk and Ellington,
Those I'd have to reach
across time and space
place, class, and race
to gain more than
          second-hand testimony?
Or would my distance, my experience
Collapse them into
lazy, wretched
minstrelsy?


Play the song again.
Scroll on up, I'll wait.

Listen to it.
All two minutes
and fifty-one seconds
of it.
You may notice yourself
humming, tapping, twisting, swaying.
Hell, you've cried a river too.
You've too been driven out of your head
by someone who was untrue.
Told you they were through with you/and now they say they love you--


Hey!
See what just happened?
You just got turned into a witness.
Here you are
attesting, affirming,
this is my testimony too!
Dinah
Jay
Billie
Monk and
Duke
no longer go it alone,
Witnesses for an Entire Reality.
They've got you!
They witness you, and you,
in return,
are their 
witness.


And you know what? 
If you testify just loud enough,
in just the right pitch,
You sound just like Dinah Washington.