when strings embellish time
the time for talk is over
silence is cultivated, the means
towards heaven are coded
with erasure, life is in session
domestic, crestfallen, the audience
writhes like worms under the tarot
when the reading turns ominous
it is a lover’s wet eye shining
like a disharmonious tetractys
lodging power against our broken lips
as if we could resist, or draw the bow across
a forgiving note, we turn away
molto adagio to face
the question eating us, how much
do we gain with a hush
or lose by shouting
over the autumn mums
resolve then, to sink quietly
into dispassion, the conductor
leads the way and stops
just shy of the open gate
dVerse: Adagio for Strings
Ooh, this is lovely! From the play on the composer’s name in the title, through strings embellishing time and the amazing simile ‘a lover’s wet eye shining like a disharmonious tetractys lodging power against our broken lips’, to the drawing of a ‘bow across a forgiving note’ and the ‘question eating us, how much do we gain with a hush’.
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