Autumn Piano
From my neighbour’s parlour
I hear the echo
of an old self-playing piano:
cambric ghost of the ivories . . .
Angels annoyingly real
doodle with clouds
above the estuary
Careful reading of the scriptures
has given these angels the smiles of clowns
I carry a small basket of fruit
into my parlour
I knock my knuckles against the wooden table
and smile at the overnight dream
The basket is on the wooden table
Twilight turns the sky down,
dark, alert as a timpanist,
a blurred embryo for a moon
I stand at the window
The angels have gone from the estuary
and the uncelebrated waters
tug loneliness clumsily up the beaches
Adam’s first wife plants lilies
in my garden
She smiles, her hands earthy,
and waves to me
from the other side of the dusky glass
I watch her walk
down to the beach,
her shawl scarlet around her powerful shoulders
At the water’s edge, she waits:
her fiancé, a humorous man descended from clowns
and angels, will meet her, lead her home through the maze
I draw the curtain
My neighbour’s pianola
blunders through a dance
made of the rhythms of concolation
then is silent
I miss the muslin refrain
as I watch the shadows from my lamp
twitch, oldest wounds
Page(s) 30-31
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