Gabeba Baderoon

Primal Scene

The murmur of my father and mother

in their bedroom down the passage

her soft, private laugh.

Sudden music

On a long train journey

a child runs unbound down the aisle

speaking and running, both together.

An uncoiled string, she writhes

on being brought back by her mother.

She closes her eyes and holds two fingers

over her ears saying aaah, mmm. 

The smile fades from her face as she feels

her tongue trill in the box of the skull.

The velvet quiver of the tongue tacked

to the lungs and the hard bone

of the sternum,

that cuttle bone,

violin bow,

quill pen,

divide between the poles of the self,

breath that is now sound

and flashing light behind the eyes,

she no longer keeping out the world

but meeting its sudden music inside.

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