Marriage Rondo

JAZZ (watercolor and ink) by Gifty Armah, Ghana
©2001 Gifty

sometimes the strings are so out of tune it is
hateful and could drive you
crazy and sometimes

I try to tune it up and I wind it so tight
the string breaks and sometimes
the weather is

so contrary that I can't tune it anyway and days
go by when I can't play
a simple scale

because when I wind the string to exactly
the right place the peg
unrolls all

the way back and it just keeps doing that as if
I am destined to never play
another note

and sometimes I want to give it away and play
something else like a drum
or a kazoo

and sometimes I think about what it would be like
to play nothing at all and never
worry again about

tone and tempo and articulation  and often I walk by
the living room and just to see it
there waiting makes me

smile and somedays I get every note right and my
god it sings and vibrates through
my body

and my heart and I breathe in rhythm and the birds
outside sing like the dawn
of creation.

Gail Golden

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