Shards of Song
So what aesthetic
Can come
From constant interruption?
The Praise Houses
Come to mind for some reason
Where voices could be heard
Five miles away, voices
Before Ma Rainey that sang --
Our need to sing
Stronger than our need to sleep --
and perhaps even
more compelling our need
To find a unifying voice
Formed in the throat’s cauldron
where the necessary angel’s wings,
persistently scrape the iron sides
Like scratches on an old recording,
Distract us with her struggle to fly
From the flames
On a coherent song.
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1 comment:
I stumbled on the first stanza but then it picked up for me, and by the fourth stanza was zinging.
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