your headphone wire is stretched across the table
like the arms of a lover
wrapped tenderly around your neck in the dim of jazz clubs
air thick with cigarette smoke and lady’s perfume and the crone
of Sinatra and the lilt of Fitzgerald
the embrace that rocks you steadily to the piano’s serenade
to the love song of the trombone and saxophone and vibraphone
to the lullaby of a string bass as smooth as butter


your headphone wire is stretched across the table
like a leash
a tether restraining the feral beast within
from quaking and convulsing and headbanging to guitar riffs pulsing through your bloodline
a chain harnessing your body’s untamed reaction
to searing blast beat tempos and cries of anarchy
to death growls and nihilistic grunge chants


your headphone wire is stretched across the table
like an umbilical cord
and for a moment i consider this to be a truth
that the symphonies and rhythms within your metal contraption have birthed you
mothered you
nourished you
that you are an infant to the possibilities of fantasia
of rhapsody
of drone and dirge and duet