All night the neighbor
upstairs
Played his flute.
Leaning out his window,
He trebled to the canine
streets
Then wandered to the
courtyard,
His flute roaring:
Shirt off,
Flint flakes of moonlight
Glimmering on his bald
head,
His bare back,
Dark and bristly,
Like his barrel chest.
The neighbor to my right
declared
That two horns
Rose from the musician’s
forehead—
Two horns,
Curved and graceful
Like his dancing thumbs.
All night his melodies
soared
Above the salt tide of
the city
Until the street lamps
flickered off—
One man and his stopless
flute.
And the neighbor across
the pool
Swears by his mother that
he saw
Two goat feet
Traipsing in the neon
light,
But we know who was drunk
And who was dreaming.
|