Bass Tone Ode
       

Dear heavy note, dear key of gloom, you loom
            Low in my gut, a slow bloom, bottom feeder
Of longing. You, the final sound of water

            Swallowing the body. You, the far end of a piano
Keeping time for the funeral. You, the kiss
            I wake to every day. In your steady hum, the river

Hollows like a bone in the earth, loses its meat,
            Thins because that's how sorrow works. Dear stone
Striking an empty oil drum, dear breast-beating

            Fist, this hole in the mist of a winter dark morning.
Your drone, a thread, rising & sinking its long
            Frequency, why the foghorn groans so shallow

Its impossible exhale. If I listen long enough,
            If I lay down my cloth, perhaps, after the song,
Its many years, you will slide through, I will learn

            Your pulse & pass it forward, loud.

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Copyright © 2017 Wesley Rothman All rights reserved
from SUBWOOFER
New Issues Poetry & Prose
Reprinted by Verse Daily® with permission