innuendos past

[Guest guest]

THE MUSICIAN CAME TUESDAY

The man came to take away

the old cello

that had stayed in the closet

since I thought I'd died

its foot stood among

the old galoshes

and its neck

turned against the wall

was behind the raincoats

silent and

out of song

no longer kept

the man said:

I never knew you played the cello!

and he wiped it briskly

with a cloth

and he tightened the strings

whipped his own bow out of a fresh case

and played " Plaisir d'Amour "

in my livingroom

in the key of G

while I wept.

a.o.howell