One First Try and then Another

Careful, a night set on edge
the European tradition of virtuoso
and the raw desire to articulate.
I pushed them both backward on the bed in the end
and each played on, one first
try and then another.
Soft then on succession thought.

The instrument all torso is loved where are held
fitting the flown down housemartin with a reed
or belying midway uncertainty
in tandem the hands, and acts adolescent.
A natural vaults a natural
development, his farther back barn jacket
American and strewn as if spare.

Thought soft the crescendo all along
saws, neither stroke inward or from the heart
except it begins unbecoming
building in roomy youth.
We have our no, libido, go.
Then all limbs arms and loudly I don’t want to
play down the skillless touch.

From Not Even Then by Brian Blanchfield. Copyright © 2004 by Brian Blanchfield. Reprinted by permission of the University of California Press. All rights reserved.