David

capitalize on it, deploy the dexterity  

    of intentional fingers roaming
        beyond the garden wall, reign in 

your house, an old consumption 
    plucking the dry lips 
        of an extraordinary life 

she was a harpist herself
her breath leaning 

into the microphone, pink

    in ASMR valentine, a wispy 

        stimulus, the other woman

lightly scraping shelled nails

    across a dry palm leaf, she squeezes 

        her coin purse into the king’s ear

we hum the fruit of what

it all amounted to

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Poets and Storytellers: Noisy!