[detail from the mural, Recreation; Charles Sprague Pearce, 1896]

Flute
--April Bernard

Some say Here,
it goes here, in a tin
on the shelf.
But others carry feeling
in the blood,
they say Here,
put your mouth
here, offering
the opulence
of a honeyed ear,
peppery mouths,
all the days
of a life. If
I weary of gorgeous
kashmiri airs
fluting through me,
nonetheless
these are invitations
I am powerless
to hush. I was born
an open
reed
and not at all
the sad lessons
so freely given--
today it was
the hurt, again--
can stop it.