Mighty Armstrong

by H.D. Brown

They lied when they said
Louis Armstrong died and turned
into that river

When mere levees could not
contain its melody old muddy
turned into him

H.D. Brown lives and works in Chico, California, where he gets by on wine and poetry. He has recent and forthcoming work in The South Dakota Review, The Café Review, Glassworks Magazine and other literary journals. In his day job, he is an English professor at CSU Chico. His family is from Arkansas, and trips along the Arkansas River have shaped his love of crazy backwaters, sloping buildings and rotting hulks, leading him to make his second home on a boat down on the California Delta.