Lost Chords
He had the ears for quarter tones
before the world unloosed a din
akin to cannonades of stones
drumming on auditory skin
that tried in vain to cry, “Be quiet!”
He had the ears for quarter tones
till horns and helicons ran riot
with gongs and bells and bass trombones
exciting his minutest bones
with thrumming, raucous resonance
while, now, a warbler’s quarter tones
fall dead like birds that hit a fence.
At times, however, surf or rain,
when soughing into megaphones,
will almost touch the heart or brain
of one whose ears heard quarter tones.
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