Tenuto*

What shapes does the world make,
slowing down? On the green

mall, does the stone lion
still raise one paw 

amid thin streams of water?
Overhead, between layers of cloud  

at dusk, you hear 
the high call of flocks migrating 

and imagine the arrow
their bodies make—

Something in you might turn,
then; and a sliver of light

resembling insight 
ribbon away across water. 

No one is asking you to stay
or to go. You stand there,

waiting for the grass to send
a signal, for the night

flowers to open their throats
with understanding.  






* Musical instruction to hold a note, chord, or rest at its full time value; Italian