December 30, 2023

chaconne

Ascending
figures meet
descending
harmonies

to make a
melancholy
sort of piece,
the varied

incidents
of human
feeling on
display in

moving and
unchanging
patterns: as
a frost-filled

lake at night
reflects the
uncounted
faces of

the moon, as
a slow dance
teaches one
how to step,

as dawn comes.
The only
modulation
is to brief

unfurling
hopefulness,
and then it
is music

once again.
A player
under spot
light thinking

fast, figures
ascending
in the dark
toward the

exits, and
a murmur
underneath
it all like

a river
coursing in
its banks, a
distant flood


poem


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