THE TORTOISE and the VIOLIN

It is not a perfect instrument.

I sampled many before I bought it.

I chose it for its oaky-mellow

lower tones.

For the longest time though

when I played it

I couldn’t help but miss

what was missing:

the upper register

my other violins had had.

Funny I would long for something

that wasn't there

that I knew wasn't

when I decided to make it mine.

Walt Whitman said all this

another way:

And do not call the tortoise unworthy because she is not

something else.