Lady Day

for Billie Holiday Lady could pour you a song, Coffee and a little cream. Stir it the whole night long Into a brown-sugar dream. Lady could wrap you a note Up in a velvet night — Sometimes Manhattan satin, Always Harlem delight. Lady Day could sing it Like nobody ever has At the Shim Sham Club, Hot Cha Cha, Joints that swung on jazz. Her bittersweet songs told Heartbreak, Meet your sister Pain, But Lady melted yesterdays Into beautiful rain.