OCTAVES

1.

The Sounding

The other side

of drum: bone.

A tympani forged, shivers

through a window,

spirals, pulses, pitches,

into music

that becomes

our listening.

2. 

The Avalanche

A rocky planet

whirls beneath our feet

67,000 mile per hour

around the sun.

Earth’s little pirouette.

A periodicity we never feel.

Never.

Yet, if one otolith

of the inner ear

avalanches down

the wrong canal,

a room will lurch

and walls will wheel,

our bodies will lose their balance.

A helter-skelter of this kind

will marry gratitude to gravity  

faster than the speed of sound -

and have us hold stillness

as a phenomenon we can prize

even more than perfect pitch.