Because of course I did

AN IDEA OF IMPROVISATION AS ADAGIO FOR VIOLIN AND VIOLA
(for Hilary Hahn)

Not unlike the way 

some fingers might 

crave a certain sound 

as they slide 

down a neck

to bend a pitch—

a prayer of uncertainty

may also seek 

to merge the shapes 

of two citrus bodies—

say a blood or

navel orange—

within the silence

of a still life.

And yet not 

a long island sound

connecting two bodies 

of water under

a duvet of darkness

or not as signed waves 

from red carnation lips

making the leaps 

of a ghazal

into the sea

of a secret which

—when you toss 

your hair that way—

seems to ripple like

what in lesser light

could be called

—for now—

abandon.

But maybe

a sound like fingers

on taut strings—

while orange petals

warm the air 

above the wisp

of a wick—

as if these two

curving bodies

might share a note

—or anything 

hand drawn—

that could 

inscribe us closer 

to a Trouble Clef

where a silkening

seeks to blend us 

into one long scarf 

of sigh—almost pianissimo 

as freshly cut violets—

or perhaps begins

to reach beneath 

a bare strip of thigh

that now ripples

with the blood 

or navel orange’s

silent ache—

as if only until dawn,

as if only until 

a few filaments

feel prone to rise or fall 

as a brush of red incarnate

on an inch of open neck.