A streetside elegy in C
Laura Langley
Our quintet gathers
on respective curbs
(More than six feet apart:
This distance is not mandated,
This distance is neighborly love,
This distance is
paradoxically
infuriatingly
against the status quo.
This distance is avant garde.)
Neighbors converse
Two octaves
cleaved together
cleaved apart
We are whole C notes
They are whole C notes
No notes between
We create dissonance
We create consonance
Once in a while
A car a cyclist a walker
Will interject an E or a G
A momentary
chord is struck
An interrupted cadence
head-nods smiles hello’s