nightmusic

“There is music in the air, music all around us; the world is  
full of it, and you simply take as much as you require.”  
—Edward Elgar  
 
night’s keen baton keeps perfect time,  
to suck lithe rhythm and pastel rhyme  
from heav’n’s nocturnal stores.  
shrill crickets play their piccolos,  
the bamboo—flutes the warm wind blows,  
that echo on the shores.  
 
owl bugles from dark caverns shoot,  
as though, wide-eyed, they gave a hoot  
who answers to their whoo?
frog tremolos at cadence-points  
the evening’s gaiety anoints  
with love’s grand pas de deux.  
 
bat fiddlers their spicato raise  
in joyful paganini praise,  
muted g-strings intact.  
cicadas wield full latitude,  
cats flaunt full kitty kattitude:  
what tones could i have lacked?  
 
if i composed a vocal strain—  
a descant on the tuneful main—  
perhaps the symphony  
would be the perfect episode,  
served up with lyrics a la mode—  
celestial syzygy.  
 
© Copyright 2023 November 25  
by Clyve A. Bowen♫