Robert D Valerio
Orpheus
Singlehandedly he wheeled his grand piano
into the middle of the second lane of the M62,
and there, at first light, he began to play
the complete works of Erik Satie,
opening with that sequence of short pieces called
Dried Embryos, which seemed appropriate
for Monday morning. It began to rain.
The first National Express from Hull to Liverpool
whooshed past, drenching the mahogany.
A helicopter pilot, seeing the blaze
of ivory against dull tarmac, unhooked
a radio. Meanwhile the pianist played
Gymnopédies; the meditative chords
were soon accompanied by shrieking klaxons.
Sirens, blue lights flashing on hard shoulders,
angrily flung open doors, did not distract him;
then the truck they couldn’t flag down in time
came in offbeat, scattering unrelated keys
across the six lanes. Policemen stood in the rain,
waving traffic past, abandoned metronomes
still ticking on their windscreens, in the steady
tempo of the first Gnossienne.
Page(s) 13
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