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                                  The Rossini in the sky

 

In the sunlight poking its fingers through the blinds in my room

I think I hear murmurs of a valse brilliante, Chopin-style;

(I’m listening to that piece now, so it comes to mind—

Ah, what a welcoming way to wake up each morning!)

Or maybe it’s a duet, or a fugue, or a symphony....

I’m curious now and anyway want to hear the music outside,

So I raise myself (this necessitates that I pause the other music—

It’s Mozart’s Sunshine Concerto now, No. 17—but I trust

The substitution will be worth it)

And I pull the little string with the little plastic cone on its end

And the blinds magically raise themselves.

The sunlight withdraws its fingers and steps into my room

Uninhibited, body and soul. 

It’s blinding.

There’s no subtlety here; it’s clearly a fanfare I’m listening to.

Pure joy in the cloudlessness of the sky (which is immeasurably blue).

It’s Beethoven’s Fifth, fourth movement: “Wake up! Wake up!

Wake up while there is such a day to be seized!”

I smile and throw on my clothes and step outside,

Body and soul.

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