Halfway Through

I’m already halfway through NaPoWriMo! I can’t believe it! Here, have another poem:

(DAY 15)

Recital

The air is disintegrating

all around,

ripped into narrow ribbons

slowly, then swiftly,

intensely, then slowly

once more.

There are so many people

all around,

but no, they are not

people,

they are cut-out silhouettes,

shadow puppets,

this Grecian Urn is packed

with them,

the moments of silence, when

the music breathes in,

are thick with their beats:

da-DUM, da-DUM,

go their heart-strings,

ah-HAH, hah-HAH,

go their lungs. There is

chatter sometimes,

a thin, whistling membrane,

easily broken

by the push of a finger,

the pressure

of a palm making love

to another palm.

The only beat that I

do not hear,

the only shape that is not

blurred against

the ripping air and the people

that are not people

is that of a dream which,

only now,

I realise has never belonged

to me.

But the air is whole again

and the room

darkens with the absence

of music

before my thought can reach out

to him.