SLAM!

"Constanze Weber" 

At two months shy of thirty-six
you left your requiem unfinished,
your notes a minor mess upon my floor.

I compose myself:
tell you sotto voce, Farewell, Amadé
and kiss your to-be-legendary poisoned lips
to marry, then, a Danish diplomat
(and he as much obsessed with you as I)

as if trying to forget what keys you inked
or with which instrument
or every time those gold-edged paper whispers
walled our raw rehearsals
for the candelabra-lighted concert nights.

As recompense I have but minuets,
sonatas, operas, symphonies, and scores
all performed in dreamtime rhythms
where our marriage bed complexities
take hurried bows and exit to applause.



"Whenever I'm caught between two evils, I take the one I've never tried."
         ~ Mae West (1892 - 1980)

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