Biography series: Louis Armstrong

Who would have thought? 
by Joel Howard
Inspired by the early life of trumpeter, Louis Armstrong

A place for poor boys who got in trouble*
A place for poor boys who got in trouble
Who would have thought? 
Who would have thought? 
That this place
Where in it myself I got
Out of a place for poor boys who got in trouble
Where just days earlier I had eaten
Rice and beans out of a shared pot
With my family - 8 of us 
Sharing rice and beans
Playing in a band 
At the corner of the street
Do you know what this means? 
That out of pots, shared pots
Out of streets, old streets
That out of poverty, shared poverty
Yes even out of trouble, my trouble
Music can ring, songs can sing
Even out of the poverty of you and me!

*Source - direct quote from If I only had a horn. Young Louis Armstrong. By Roxane Orgill. 1997.



Popular Posts