The elegant sadness of this music

is just the first layer.

Beneath enter again

the corsetry of a remote childhood,

the bindings between the shoulder the neck

the puffed belly.

Find the white lonely fingers

poised above a lake in midwinter

and all that dies in small rooms,

the earth realigning itself,

small beginnings of order.

Breathe in the mathematician’s crust,

the carefully measured sticks that prop up

mysterious buildings where

the hearts of reptiles are frozen.

Stand for the smallest part of a second

in the doorway where the rain

gathers fragrance from the herb garden,

where the longing for another world

strips you bare
While the after-tremor of this music

ripples, eddying around you,

only sit firmly as you play

and glance with the lightest nod of recognition

at all the wedding photographs,

the funeral notices.

Sitting upright concentrate

on the earth’s movement,

the invisible passage of light into dark

so that the exact measure of elegance be transmitted –

just enough for this moment

to outdistance pain.

Let the pause between notes

be brief yet long enough

to break however lightly

the gravity of falling through soundless space.