a poem referencing a shared experience with my daughter...


What the Music Does

Her golden hair is strewn back on the couch,
my feet in socks are propped up with the cat,
and both of us are swept in by a story
that either one could quote chapter and verse.

Here with our hearts disarmed by ardent heroes,
I guess the oboe stealing in begins
the liquid orchestration, sotto voce,
that pays us back each time the tale replays.

It's rather like a game we play together,
revisiting the stories or the songs
where we are sure the ache will be renewed:
some loss of infant paradise remembered.

I guess there must be hidden in the score
motifs that call for instruments aquatic,
for something strums my brain below a threshold
where manly bravery might hold it back.

As Anne and Gil hold hands over the water,
my face begins to shimmer like the lake;
and my daughter spies the tracks before I wipe
them, smiling too at what the music does.




Poetry by Mark Aikins
Read 646 times
Written on 2006-12-29 at 20:46

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Rob Graber
Nice job! I admire especially the second stanza; its first and final lines really play the words beautifully!
2006-12-29



Oh yes, what the music can do!...
You describe it beautifully.
Thank you for sharing with us these moments, and a warm welcome on the bay!
2006-12-29