You did your duty
twenty minutes at a time
making progress
but missing the rhyme
while your brother escaped
in orgies of notes
oblivious to the clock
until they dragged him smiling
to the dinner table.
How long did it take them
to wake up and hear the music
trapped and leaking from
tapping toes and drumming fingers,
aching for release
with two limbs wasted
while you served hard time
carefully pressing keys
your father longed to master?
Now there's nowhere on
this green blue planet
where insects quiver and nations quake
and bodies move for pleasure's sake
where you can't join souls
with perfect strangers
sticks flying, limits dying
playing with time, soaring on wings
of the universal tongue.