play on

I draw the screen
across my heart,
to see my many selves
on stage,
tuning their voices
without mikes,
while the conductor
looks on bewildered,
with no score to play;

and so she waits
for a silence to rise
from among the voices
clamouring
for their rightful place,
the silence which
connects them all,
holding them together
in that wide open
generous embrace;

she looks on then
with moistened eyes,
listening to every note -
its pitch, intensity and colour,
her body swaying
with the exquisite music unfolding,
undoing the clasps
of her gentle, pulsing heart,
becoming each note
in its naked form,
as they take stage
and just play on.