"and a NEW YORK POST with her face on it/
and I am sweating a lot by now and thinking of
leaning on the john door in the 5 SPOT
while she whispered a song along the keyboard
to Mal Waldron and everyone and I stopped breathing"
This is the very moment when he finds out that Billie Holiday died, after his long day of getting his shoe shined, going to the bank, going to the store we finally come full circle he sees the paper and he has a flashback of perhaps the first time he ever heard her sing. In the men's bathroom he can hear singing almost in a whisper and he stops breathing. For many the poem can seem unimportant but in the end it draws a common interest which is Billie Holiday as she had probably taken most peoples breathe away, anyone who was a fan probably can remember what they did the day they found out she died and that is what makes this poem so significant because it has a universal effect.