fictive beat

W/O/M/A/N
gone into abstraction
gitane smoke before the rain,
cello case velvet interior
soft and firm

W/O/M/A/N
breasts and silk once seen on canvas
could not concede to his kisses
or arch of bow
he had to wander

W/O/M/A/N
no more companion
than those strings he manipulated
with fingers callused,
she will not tremor

W/O/M/A/N
as absent as the background
waiting for a taxi,
rain effective conduit
to her misery,
he sheltered the cello
with umbrella
heading to a jazz club

W/O/M/A/N
is the beat
is the tender thrum,
a cello’s true heart
and poets calling,
absinthe and kisses
parted stocking thighs
he had found another
W/O/M/A/N

Musician in the Rain by Robert Doisneau

 

 

guitar ambulance

up in the air

heart blighted by wings,

each note picked

sends shudders,

listening absorbing

finding notes,

while putting pen to paper,

lyrics at once

strange formed on white,

in his mind a pattern

of mismatch shapes

clumped together

ill fitting,

the sound became jagged,

heart swooped and dived

plunging to icy ocean,

she had not been at

the forefront of his mind,

hidden at the back

yet now needed to write

about her,

wrap her in lyrics

tatooing her flesh in words

that had meaning,

thumb and fingers

move over strings,

a  stranger pain appeared

no respite

allegro

breath quotations

tear at corner of eye

string snapped

lurched into a silence

that now could not be filled