Monday, April 17, 2017

Poem 17: Nocturne

Really?  Do I have to?

"Today, I challenge you to write a nocturne. In music, a nocturne is a composition meant to be played at night, usually for piano, and with a tender and melancholy sort of sound. Your nocturne should aim to translate this sensibility into poetic form!"

*

Nocturne No. 1 in B Flat

A soft breeze 
parts fluttering curtains,
strained 

through blue moonlight,
a gasp of air 
over the sill. 

She lies half-awake 
under the cool sheet,
naked

as if newly born.
Ghosts tremble
in leafy shadows,


on the far wall -- 
her young father,
a smiling grandmother, 

and her scowling 
husband,
bullet hole in his temple 

dark,
empty.

Downstairs,
a clock chimes 
three times,

disturbing 
the liquid stillness...  

for a second

she hangs in
the strange suspension
created by the sound's

silky wake,
not sure if she's
dead or alive,

held by a powerful
force or attraction
that feels like 

a fierce love.

 


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