RUNDELANIA

 

Sound of So (may it be)

 

by Kitty Jospé 

 

It’s enough to say so, just for this moment, I only want

soft voicing in the roundness of o, the years slipping in

so… slipping by so, after so…

 

I’m feeling just ever so e minor—

glad for older, wiser voices who have lived

the roundness of o, the years slipping in from so…

to so… until a spritely rhythm chases away

anything other than alive-alive-alive.

 

And why not be glad for doces falicios^[1]

offered in Portugal, by a young man to a girl

he fancies, to state his intention—to celebrate

what asks to be celebrated.

Imagine how he holds her, how they dip

swerve to sweep sideways, rise in a small catch

of breath, before the next step

in a billow of  bolero!

 

They are caught in the complexity of notes,

the rhythm speeding on as if to tell a small joke—

but is it laughing or sobbing I hear in the trembling?

There’s so much we cannot know, caught between

a world we think we’re in,

and the one we think we want…

 

The moon kisses both in a wild garden playing

with what we think we see…

and it’s enough to swing alive, before returning

to a minor mood nesting in the heart.

It’s enough to believe melting o’s,

like the blues singer, you know, I didn’t know

I loved her, until I began to let her down,

the music making the sound of the ropes straining

over the coffin as it lowers into the grave.

 

It’s enough to say so, just for this moment, I only want

soft voicing in the roundness of o,

the years slipping in so… slipping by

so, after so…

 

[1] https://www.atlasobscura.com/foods/doces-falicos-bolos-de-sao-goncalo

 

 

You can hear Kitty read this poem at: Central Casting, an RPL audio site on SoundCloud.

 

 Kitty Jospé loves facilitating poetry appreciation and collaborations with word, art and music.  After years of teaching French, she turned to English, and received her MFA in creative writing in 2009.