Music Signals Poem by Diana van den Berg

Haunting piano notes
each one spilling its silvered melancholy
into the deep dark of my longing night
in empathy with my tattered soul
and then the breath-stopping voice
of the bass-baritone
of a string quartet from Soweto
as only a Zulu throat can sing
in Italian words that I do not understand
though they understand me
for they wrap their solace
around the him-shaped hollow
of my heart
remembering
the ecstatic music we made
of wild and wonderful forests
and stormy and gentle seas
of electric finger touch
and two hearts melted into one
love.