An Unwound Audio-Cassette Tape by Leslie

[cameron]

An Unwound Audio-Cassette Tape

It should have been a Pastoral Symphony
strung along the roadside hedge,
shining. Crotchets and quavers waving
light music on thin staves of twigs
the bright day dancing, with wood wind shaking
movements through a score of leaves.

A surprisingly long piece, too great or too grand,
too loud or alive to be locked
in the small black coffin of a cassette;
it had escaped to flaunt itself
in this naked celebration.
I imagined music as I passed,
variations on reflected themes,
matched in my mind shone patterns
to orchestrated sound,
and wondered
if the tempi of the tunes
the tape contained would change
or alter key according to my speed:
faster falsetto, slow basso profundo.

How long could it hang together,
movement to movement, section to section?
It must break down, the whole continuous work
split into snatches, scatter unbarred.

Corners of fields may trap sad songs,
Choruses catch in standing corn,
rondos spin in the wind strummed trees,
but I, who passed by, will never hear
who it was hanging there on a hedge

Leslie