Music

Background:

One wonders when they are a parent, and money is short, whether it is worth the effort of getting a child something they would really like.

.

.

For Anita

. 

In the winter light

she stands outlined

against the window,

an anonymous shadow

slightly swaying

to the mellow tones

of her clarinet

– in the room

the music is everything.

 .

How many years,

how many rooms,

has she stood just so

her inner breath releasing

multiple feelings

through the voice

of her clarinet.

. 

She half-remembers

rejecting: the piano

as being too happy,

the flute, as too wistful

for what might have been,

also the sadness of strings

pretending at happiness

. 

but forgotten the details

how this clarinet arrived

into her welfare family

- only of the ecstasy

of its music finding her

thirty years ago.

. 

After the clarinet player

leaves the darkening room

the melodies linger

on the air, on the walls,

like a fine patina of perfume.