Let Us Improvise Motifs
I
Let us improvise motifs
on neck and shoulder,
in the small of the back
and behind the knee
running blind fingers
over an accordion’s buttons,
coaxing a garlicky wheeze
from cracked leather
a thin current
filling the spaces (minute
pockets of eternity).
II
The real music exists
between the notes,
a serpentine shimmer
disturbs
the air.
The clarinet’s reed stiffens
to life
between saintly lips
and confesses all secret
misgivings
through a high black bell.
Let us practice etudes
on cuticles of keys
and soft pedals,
tongues strumming
inner strings.
III
The bow glides
across tightly-wound
tendons, a loving scrape on
an open nerve.
Let us dance beneath
a score of crows
… ecstasy
across sky and wire
we two
scarecrows, a voicing
of dry grass: hesitation
and desire, pushing
the 360-degree periphery
wind-loosened borders
disturbing
our air.
(Originally appeared in Aquapolis, June 2007)