It’s Like This

It’s like this – time opens
a door here. You find yourselves alone. That’s when
in this big room that sound begins again.
To get away you have to come here and hide
as if you belong here, looking casually away.
You see, it’s that sound. It starts almost like silence,
then an excited, repressed voice. Then
louder, faster. You have to look around,
get away, get out of here. You can’t
bear to listen for long, it’s too intense.
But you have to find if it still goes on,
after these years. You see, there is something
beyond music. If you get there, you look around
quickly before the air breaks up into those
pieces of glass, the hail with claws in it.
People who find that sound shake from sympathy,
and what they held off for long can leap upon them
and put the ultimate blade into their hearts,
you see, and then twist, like this.

~William Stafford