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un poco mosso

by Daniel Ma, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis

Return to The Bards of Baylor

I remember that evening when
over a plate of reheated salmon,
you lamented the neglected dignity
of your beloved cello.

How the adagio in the Beethoven 'Emperor'
wasn't just a sparkling keyboard,
but a cress between that sparkle
and an imperceptible tenderness
punctuating itself within the arpeggios.

Just listen, you said, that's not simply
a dominant and a fifth
trotting to the weary grasp of theory,
but a muted voice, stretched above its register,
plaintively pleading to be heard.

I remember that evening still,
now swallowed by the harsher tune
of sirens, pagers, and overhead alarms –
the sigh of ventilators
gasping over heart monitors.

I sit quietly beside your bed and listen
to the steady rhythm of your breathing.

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For a Long-Lost Autistic Friend, by Diane Stevens

 

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Volume 2, Issue 1, Spring 2006

   
 

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  Last modified: October 10, 2008