USA

Chamber Music

It was in an adagio of a Baroque sonata
Strains of violin and cello
Mixed with notes from piano
And I debate and try and determine
Albinoni?
Lotti?
Vivaldi?

Music uplifting and tempo sweetly rising
In allegro con spirito and I wonder
Buxtehude or Bach?
And try hard to decide
Cantata?
Prelude?
Fugue?

It is a softness Bach could render
In movement stirring and spirited
Like a summer storm
Rain on the pavement
The winds of late August bending
And swaying the highest leaves and branches
Variations in the treetops

© Copyright Doug Tanoury 12/31/99

Fortune Teller 

There is a spiritual reader on Main Street 
In the 2nd floor window of a building 
I see a red neon sign that flashes 
An open palm and fanning cards 
Above the word OPEN into the night 

And I am tempted to try and see 
The fate and future that waits for me 
For this is the first day of a new age 
Where poetry is physics and magic mechanics 
And a poet is worth a hundred psychics 

I will lean my head toward a fortuneteller's ear 
And whisper I too know and understand time 
As a wholly artificial construct and each 
Second minute day week month year 
An edifice of solely human construction 

She will smile and nod as I continue 
And I know too that the demarcation of days 
Is illusion for time is liquid and my past and future 
Mingle like fluid that swirls and flows in powerful 
And swift currents around this corner of Main Street 

© Copyright Doug Tanoury 1/2/00 

All Rights Reserved. Printed By Permission.