no one listens
until the voices start
bleeding bowstrings
A cello moans through cedar fog,
low notes trembling between her teeth.
Amber bowstrings tighten, vibrating against ribs—
wood groans beneath the weight of sound.
Resin clings to fingertips,
drawn taut over hollow curves.
Each bow stroke sharpens the air,
Splitting migraines into cascading cacophony
The final note—
held breath, a whispering overtone,
unraveled into stillness.
After your butterfly alighted my dreams,
I never forgot your kiss,
You became the object of my vespers,
The refuge for my injured toiling chest.
I await your spectacle, your curtain call.
Your fragile teasing dance.
Like Groundhog Day, I predict your fluttering
Wings, the wavy flurry of your bowstrings,
Again and again.
What wonder comes next?
Are you counting down my dreams?
FLOCK OF BOATS
Who hasn’t watched boats bobbing in the shallows
Restlessly pulling at their slack tethers in the softly breaking waves?
They are live things with souls that stretch out to the horizon,
And feel happiest with the splash of deep saltwater against their cheeks.
Their boards shrink with dry sun and shelter, paint peels,
For they need to swell their flesh in life-giving pitch and roll
And fill their sails with hopeful energy, their tillers leaning hard
Against the tide, and ropes taut as bowstrings, heading home,
Arrow-straight, as geese in a late autumn sky, before sunset.
Beggar-boy quiet watched eyes lavender blue
One look of buried winter songs chiseled at my soul.
Tattered earlobe sullen deaf bored with a hole
Flash of pride, lightning wells I could not look into.
Saw the velvet violin case and bore a hole there too
Molded pride of undeserved, embers stirred the coal
Beggar-boy quiet watched eyes lavender blue
One look of buried winter songs chiseled at my soul.
Unclasped brass dull 'click' vessel and bow I drew
Hungry eyes body rigid--could silent tune console?
Searing bowstrings clawed at my heart a trembling cajole
Until I saw the tears run free clear as dusky dew
Beggar-boy quiet watched eyes lavender blue.
Looking for the formal definition, structure, and history of this poetry form? Visit the Poetry Dictionary entry below. Then return to explore how PoetrySoup members bring the form to life through their own poems.