March 22, 2010 “Waiting for a Cab”

Published in the A Year in Return: March 15, 2010-March 15, 2011, Journal

Waiting for a Cab

When the music ended, it did not end.—Tilo Ulbricht

The cellist leans back, her eyes closed, sways,
her naked arms and slender black dress,
her fingertips sliding up and down the strings,
her other hand pressing into the wood—

then a snap and she curls her body
in upon itself, as if gathering her arms
around a lover, then snaps again,
jolting backward, her eyes still closed,

letting go and listening to her instrument
play all by itself, then slowly going silent,
she turns to look up thru the open window
sensing me on the street above, listening.