The Innisfree Poetry Journal www.innisfreepoetry.org by Gabe Heilig
A SONG FOR YOUR BIRTHDAY
I
heard the perfect song for you
this
morning
at
the Palace of Cortez,
and
it was, as you would have it,
proud,
pleased with itself,
glad
to be singing its own name.
It
was a slow old man this morning,
at
the Palace of Cortez,
playing
on his violin—
opening
his soiled notebook
of
handwritten melodies
to
Schubert's "Ave Maria"—
playing
it once,
playing
it again,
then,
pleased, slowly stroking
his
bow across his resin,
and
playing it again.
His
music moved between us
like
a distant tide,
and
took me with it to some quiet spot
where
in this world of trouble
we
were easy, whole, and strong.
And
I wished you could have been there
for
your birthday song—
something
simple and eternal,
released
like birds to streak
across
the passage of the sun
above
an old man's morning song
at
the Palace of Cortez.
Cuernavaca,
1971
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