The Score
Sometimes I feel like I’m writing the scorefor a film that doesn’t yet exist,
but everything that will happenin the film will happen to me.
Is this what they call plot? This dailypicking up of the same things—
glasses, coffee cup, pen, book, keys—and setting them back down again?
Narrative has always troubled me,so I’ll leave that to someone else
and write the mood instead, alsoapproximating setting: a little piano
to suggest rain, and violin for a river,long and thin. That key change?
A meander. If the score is plainand sweet, it’s because the life is—
mostly. I don’t know how it ends,but given the budget, it will end quietly.
One day I’ll find myself near a river,and I’ll realize, This is that film,
the one I scored, and this is the scene whererain starts falling. And in that…
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The American Poetry Review (Digital) - 1 Issue, July/August 2023