Between the visits to the shock
The doctors used to let you
On the old upright
Donated by a former
Who is said to be quite stable now.
And all day long you played Chopin,
Badly and hauntingly, when you
Screaming on the porch that
Like an enormous birdcage.
Or
In your room and stared out at the sky.
You never looked at me at all.
I used to walk down to where the bus
Over the hill where the eucalyptus
Moved in the fog, and stared
At the lights coming on, in the white rooms.
And always, when I came back to my sister'sI used to get out the records you
The year before all your terrible trouble,
The records the critics praised and nobody
That are almost worn out now.
Now, sometimes I wake in the
And hear the sound of dead leavesagainst the shutters.
And then a
Music starts, a music out of an abyss,
And it is dawn before I sleep again.
