Poetry of Issue #8        Page 17

Looking to Music

Washed in a hot whirlpool, bathing
chin-deep in sloshing, bubbling waters,
I look ahead through sunlight
to sonatas and trios
of intimate surprise and satisfaction.
To live long would be to hear lots of music.
To live in health would be to swim often
and rest afterward in sunshine.
And I realize how much I’m like your father,
he swam & danced & loved the same music.
After a swim, like me now, he looked forward
to see you. He too craved Saturday
afternoon radio broadcasts of opera.
While dying, he sat in his den
listening to records. He sobbed
once alone to art songs and rhapsodies,
wept for his favorite, the Rosenkavalier.
How glad I am to be too busy for much music.
I can’t be distracted now from wife & child
by desire for music. If there is time,
there will be music.