An Experience Poem by Marlee Usher

We climb the stairs
And like Persephone we are driven into the darkness
We stand motionless
And hear the soft whispers emerging
We wait in silence
As the nervousness presses up against you like your shirt

The spot of light grows
To where you cannot see the faces
The light retreats back
To where the darkness falls again

Then a figure approaches
A single spot of light glows
Then it finds its resting place
A figure stands alone, arm raised

I inhale the silence
As I exhale
I release the notes and they fly through the air
As they smash and collide with the others

The song swells and overflows
And moves over the crowd
The music blocks out everything
And walls us inside our own special place

An arm comes down
A world has ended
An eternity passes
A new sounds rises to our ears

The darkness falls
Yet this time we are accompanied
The sweet sound of bells
Yet, it pierces the melody with a tinge of loneliness

As suddenly as it comes, it passes
Our moment has arrived
As the wall is broken down
Our ears are filled with music