Rudiments
By James Rioux


Thursdays. . . The sticks wild birds fluttering
over skins they beat life back into,
my father squeezing off buzz rolls rising
into a carol of Zildjians. . . I remember
my first contact, how the snare snapped off concrete.
Snug in the belly of our home, I learned
the flams and paradiddles, and even
with my reckless ratamacues, his discipline
was quiet and repetitive, the same
as it was that fall when he went cold turkey,
quit the club gigs and went back to night school
to secure his “real” job—the Thursdays
coming and going on into winter, basement
growing cold and damp, the whole house hushed.

James Rioux's work has appeared in a variety of publications including Prairie Schooner, Five Points, and The North American Review.  His first book, Fistfuls of the Invisible, was published by Penhallow Press in 2004.

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