DUNES REVIEW

Fall 2017 (Volume 21, Issue I)

JOANNA WHITE

DUET

she swings the tube
once a vulture’s wing bone
to her embouchure
twirls air down the cylinder
out to the concert hall
where it breaks
the cavern of silence
the dancing flutist
pipes altissimo
silver keys click
the tones shimmy
twist round each other
a design, a pattern
what it all means
the feelings released
to change the color
refracting from the flute
to the listeners

he curls his lips
around the knife-skinned reed
once a hollow of cane
warming the ebony
down through the bell
free of the instrument to
the front row gaze
the swaying clarinetist
murmurs chalumeau
a whispered intimacy
up arpeggios
in strands, braids weaving
until the audience becomes
what the mingled notes draw out
from their moorings
shades of white
to the dimmed chandelier
bones aglow

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