Peter Salt
Your Cello
Its music grows more distant,
lent to friends or laid down
carelessly in spare rooms
like strata from previous incarnations
of yourself. The instrument is stringless,
tarnished and pushed into an attic recess.
It resonates against watery cadences,
the emptying and filling of the tank
to wash dishes and blouses.
Occasionally, you recall its weighty bole,
its shining, tensioned curvature.
You weigh the bow. Sense rosined resistance.
Pause cautiously before summoning out
that great barking sigh of a voice.
lent to friends or laid down
carelessly in spare rooms
like strata from previous incarnations
of yourself. The instrument is stringless,
tarnished and pushed into an attic recess.
It resonates against watery cadences,
the emptying and filling of the tank
to wash dishes and blouses.
Occasionally, you recall its weighty bole,
its shining, tensioned curvature.
You weigh the bow. Sense rosined resistance.
Pause cautiously before summoning out
that great barking sigh of a voice.
Page(s) 49
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