Forty For Melissa Lyon Poem by Joel Solkoff

FORTY for Melissa Lyon

" Music that I heard with you was more than music/"
—Conrad Aiken

The winding corridor brought us together
In the 1919 rubber factory
Where painted mice find salvation in baseboard images of home.

Slowly, we took the freight elevator to breakfast late or lunch early.
We touched along a route reminiscent perhaps of an old Jerusalem
Wherein the finding isakin to the stations of the cross
Revealing options.

The options include you playing your harp
At a wedding or cocktail party or yoga opening
The music of David, Mozart, and meditation.

More options provide a training program
For home ownership silent enlightenment
For creation of a family for you and Mr. X.

2

Later you chalk my name and title upon the studio door
Before the entrance is sealed.

You return to 1956 with a Gaga guitar song
And brochures on fishing from a Lycoming bank center
Then to the clarity of that sphere.

Selah.

3

Now that you are 40 you will live forever
Beautiful in a special little house in the woods
Your retreat providing access, hope, and joy.

Selah.

- Joel Solkoff
Lycoming County Pennsylvania
July,2019