By Cyrus Cassells (as Maceo Hartnell)
From Fall 2017
When sundown coppers the flapper’s cloche, awakens the speakeasies, and a cat-tongued jazz licks the ear, when bodacious lovers pounce on thrilling mistletoe as catnip to elope and the ebullient clarinet agrees, brisk snowflakes, elating as wedding rice blemish the jazzman’s spats, and buttoned-up Harlem acquires a jump-the-broom beauty. Snow-dusted carolers assemble to joust with the enticing jazz. This cold solstice the longed-for messiah is born as a latch-key child, and the bootblack doubles as his mindful drummer boy, while under the hope-inducing star, eclipsed by a belittling skyscraper, the agile bell-hop, the fleet brownstone janitor, the Johnny-on-the-spot porter are vehemently declared, by a wailing alto sax, the three able magi of Harlem.