- The orchestra tunes itself
- on a single note
- and
- the conductor appears
- bows
- and shows that the relation
- from his wand to the ensuing music
- is direct.
- The effect is comic.
- Let’s dance;
- the world is sentimental tonight,
- I whisper in your ear.
- If we were to attend to only the music
- and forget the hundred instruments,
- why, then the world would be in love.
- Actually we live in different cities,
- and you worry about money
- a hundred miles away.
- I am correcting student papers
- but every few minutes
- I get up as if the phone were ringing
- and think about you.
- The music gives a story about blood and lust,
- a story about infidelity and revenge.
- It mimics a hundred actions and passions
- of an army of a hundred voices
- which approaches
- and then anguishes
- as an ocean wave.
- We are two funny lovers
- to moan and sigh and giggle
- for hours on the phone to each other,
- and then the next evening alone
- to despair
- that you don’t love me
- anymore.
- 31 October 1982 San Diego