Comedy with Flutes
Enough of this foolishness—caution gone
She opined
We need a comedy with flutes
Melody—the rise and fall of voices
Sweet or discordant, matters what to
Singing voice, the tune of it all
These drums been beating for ages
And we can’t decipher the signals—
Once the drum became a machine
The ghost in the skins was lost.
Give us the tickle, but not the slap
We need that cheer—the bombs making men rich
Depress the spirit, cauterize souls
weaken verve—we need
Our nerve back.
Rahsaan Roland Kirk return
With your many windy woods
Lift our souls up and out
Of this brutal banality.
There the not-so-young woman speaking
Sotto voce telling truth and when she does
The belly aches as you see her sitting on
The edge of wisdom. Playing her changes
Even as the drumbeats mechanize—the
Voice is our greatest magic. Listen for
The hard crunch fun of fighting back
Hear her lash the brute with verbs.
Notes:
“Comedy with Flutes” from The Beloved Community, copyright 2023 by Patricia Spears Jones, used by permission of Copper Canyon Press, www.coppercanyonpress.org.
Source: Poetry (October 2023)