#1170 - getting to be

 

1170

16.iii.23

4.75

getting to be

concert piece for Gershwin’s ‘Rhapsody in Blue’

 

does your average mammal?

or the tree tasked

whom we bring down?

 

forget the names as soon as said

 

go by gumboot on

 

belly up

pear shaped

slumped

 

a vanished shtetl

czar gone

 

suddenly street wise

a fire escape traipse

 

piano traffic

back me up

 

it is as if from dawn

when tenement

 

rise up whistle to the top

with timpani

and brass lead off

 

climbing

still time for a quip

a corny gag

 

machine anthem swell

orchestra joins up

 

as if city were time’s signature

and our original

 

a rhapsody

 

and getting to be

play shame of self

 

calmly reflect

then pound at the thing

 

long since

having become another

 

who was I?

so now am

 

still wondering

still in the roaring

 

see straight

take your time

 

come to the jumping off point

great crash is coming

 

we play through it all

 

sprung from light

 

how far from the branch

may we fall?