INSTRUMENT

If, at the end of the day,

fatigue is this long string threaded

down the spine, it is possible for

the body to become its own instrument,

strumming its one note. Under

the moonlight, a mother of two

children, when her children are asleep,

marvels at the older child's artwork

that is scattered in piles on scrap-

paper throughout the house.

Birds, flowers, people, words.

There she is, sorting, clearing

when the day is over. And there

is the moon out there to notice.

And the body can respond with its

one note, its strumming, repeated.

Out there, the apple trees are making

a similar break from their simple

earthly rootedness, to the one note

of their silver opening buds.